|
|
|
 News from Around the Americas | January 2008 
Hispanic Vote Will Test Barack Obama in Nevada
 Toby Harnden - Telegraph Media
go to original
| | The Obama campaign has made extraordinary efforts to court Hispanic voters. | | |
Barack Obama’s ability to transcend racial divisions will face a major test this Saturday as victory in the Nevada caucuses will hinge on whether Hispanic voters turn out and back him.
A win in the Western state helped by a voting bloc traditionally reluctant to support black candidates would add weight to his argument that he is more electable than his rival Hillary Clinton.
Defeat would cast doubt on his ability to beat her in key states such as California and New York that have large Hispanic populations.
The stakes have been raised by the endorsement of the powerful Culinary Workers’ Union, which has 60,000 members, some 40 per cent of whom are Hispanic.
A loss would mean that large numbers of Hispanics - a quarter of the electorate - had defied their leadership to choose Mrs Clinton.
An opinion poll gave Mr Obama a slight edge but turnout is almost impossible to predict because the state has never before voted at such a crucial juncture.
advertisementThe Democratic party brought the 2008 contest in Nevada forward to give Hispanics a say.
Black voters will predominate in next week’s South Carolina primary.
At a rally on Tuesday in Henderson, close to Las Vegas, the few dozen Hispanics out of the 300 who turned out to see Mr Obama were outnumbered by black supporters, who make up less than eight percent of Nevada’s population.
A Clinton rally in Las Vegas the previous night had been dominated by Hispanics.
Nationally, 59 per cent of Hispanic Democrats said they want Mrs Clinton to be their party’s presidential nominee compared to 15 per cent preferring Mr Obama, according to a poll by the Pew Hispanic Centre.
“Us blacks and the Hispanics have always had to work against each other,” said Mary Downes, 77, who will vote for Mr Obama in tomorrow’s caucuses. “It’s politics.
“When the Hispanics came into Miami from Cuba, the black man was working in all the hotels and all of a sudden, they’re gone. There’s always going to be a clash. We’re trying to educate our kids but of course it continues.”
Economic competition remains. Three years ago, President Vincente Fox of Mexico provoked a furore among American black leaders when he remarked that Mexican migrants did work in the United States that “not even blacks want to do”.
Behind the concierge desk at the Bellagio hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Nadia Hernandez, 19, a Culinary Workers’ Union member, said she was leaning towards Mrs Clinton despite the union endorsement.
“I’m not quite decided yet but a lot of the women want Hillary,” she said. “I like Obama too and my mother says that she and her friends will vote for him because of the union.
“My family is traditional, though. It’s not an issue for my generation but there are a few older people who might not want to vote for an African-American.”
Carlos Peres, a bartender at nearby Caesars (CORR) Palace who arrived in the United States from Cuba in 2000, said the endorsement would not sway him.
“Even if my union is going for Obama, you have to have the power to make up your own mind. I’m not sure yet who I’ll go for. Obama has new ideas and he’s the freshest but Hillary has experience and she’s got her husband too.”
A pollster for Mrs Clinton said recently that the Hispanic voter had “not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates”.
Mr Obama is doing everything he can to prove that conventional wisdom wrong. During Tuesday’s debate, Mrs Clinton distanced herself from the comment say that the pollster “was making a historical statement” while Mr Obama rejected it based on his Senate election victory.
“Not in Illinois,” he said. “They all voted for me....when Latino voters know of my commitment to them and the work that I’ve done for years, then they gravitate toward my candidacy.”
Whether the power of the union or a racial pull away from a black candidate will win out remains an open question.
“Historically, the Culinary Workers’ Union is very effective in getting their people to the polls and to vote for the person they endorse,” said Ted Jelen, a political science professor at the University of Nevada.
“On the other hand, they’re flying into the teeth of a fairly strong tide here because of the old tensions between African-Americans and Hispanics.”
During a tour of a Hispanic neighbourhood in Las Vegas last week, Ruben Kihuen, a Hispanic state assemblyman and rising political star who supports Mrs Clinton, leaned over to her and whispered: “I cannot emphasise to you enough, Senator, how the Hispanic workers in the Culinary are loyal to you. They are loyal to the Culinary, but they will vote for you.”
The Obama campaign has made extraordinary efforts to court Hispanic voters. More than half of the staff in his North Las Vegas office speak Spanish and volunteers have canvassed Hispanic workers at building sites and even as they leave hotels during the 4am shift change.
Both candidates have been circulating literature in Spanish and deploying Spanish phrases. “I was listening to Obama trying to say ’Si, se puede’ - ’Yes, we can’ - and his pronunciation was pretty awful,” said Dr Jelen. “Hillary does that much better.”
The former First Lady, however, struck an unfortunate note when she chatted to voters in a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas last week.
Searching for an example to explain that the problems of all Americans were connected, she ventured that it was wrong to treat them as if “one is guacamole and one is chips”. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us