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 News from Around the Americas | February 2008 
Expatriates Eye Super Tuesday
 Sean Mattson - San Antonio Express-News
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| Supporters hold signs during a rally for Illinois Senator and US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama Febuary 3 at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. Exhausted White House hopefuls have launched one last frenzied day of campaigning before a 24-state "Super Tuesday" - the biggest one-day White House nominating contest in history. (AFP/Valerie Macon)
The Global Primary will take place from February 5 to 12, 2008. Democrats Abroad will hold a Democratic Global Presidential Primary by Internet, mail or fax, and in-person at two Puerto Vallarta Voting Centers. (Click HERE for more info) | | |
Ajijic, Mexico — Super Tuesday's presidential primaries will be held in 24 states — and a lot of countries.
Democrats Abroad, the overseas branch of the Democratic Party, will hold its first "global primary" from Tuesday through Feb. 12, allowing party members to cast primary ballots at polling stations in more than 30 nations.
Democrats overseas can also cast primary votes for the first time via the Internet, meaning registered Democrats anywhere in the world can participate.
One of seven polling stations to be set up in Mexico will be in this lakeside town of bougainvillea-lined cobblestone streets, art shops, bars and a siesta-centric lifestyle — not exactly a place one would expect to be a hotbed of U.S. political debate.
But many of the town's several thousand Americans, most retired, are gearing up for Super Tuesday with all the fervor of their compatriots back home.
"We want to give a greater voice to American ex-pats ... and demonstrate the strength of our voting bloc," said Howard Feldstein, the Democrats Abroad chairman in Mexico.
Feldstein, 65, and fellow activists have taken to walking around town with bilingual "vote" buttons, registering other expatriates and dual citizens for the primary and the Nov. 4 election.
Seattle native Cliff Despeaux, 69, saw the buttons, found out Democrats were wearing them and wasn't impressed.
"I'm not surprised," said Despeaux, who was visiting Ajijic, like many before him, to consider retirement there. "They'll do anything and everything to get people to vote."
He's a former Democrat but now leans Republican. But if he decides to settle here, he won't immediately find anything resembling a Republican version of the Democrats Abroad machinery.
"We're not nearly as active down here as Democrats are," said Norm Pifer, a founding member and former president of the Republicans Abroad chapter in Ajijic.
"I'm afraid the folks that replaced me just kind of dropped the ball," he said. "No one is in charge. I mean, people keep asking me, 'What are we going to do?'"
Not nearly as much as the Democrats, it seems.
Democrats Abroad is like a small state party. It will send 22 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, at which each will have half a vote to nominate the presidential candidate.
Fourteen of them will be selected to proportionally represent the results of the overseas primary, chairman Feldstein said. The rest will be "super delegates" chosen in regional caucuses.
Democrats Abroad is signing up hundreds of new members in Mexico daily, Feldstein said, noting the number of affiliated chapters in the country has grown from one in 2004 to six this year.
Cynthia Dillon, the Washington-based executive director of Republicans Abroad, said GOP activity overseas varies from place to place, but her organization is not part of the Republican National Committee. Nor does it send delegates to its national convention.
"That's why we're not making a lot of noise," she said, noting the group's main objective is to register Republican-leaning voters abroad for absentee balloting.
Ajijic's expatriates expect interest here to heat up as November approaches.
"Quite frankly, our image has been very adversely affected over these past eight years, and we are very concerned about how we're perceived," said Feldstein, noting that Mexicans have grown increasingly disenchanted with the United States because of its lack of progress on immigration reform and the threat of a border wall.
Republican Pifer said many of the town's organized Democrats are "radical" and not critical of their own party's shortcomings.
But what they seem to agree is on the roots of their interest in politics. U.S. citizens abroad still have to pay taxes, they note, and have family or other connections to their home states.
"They probably pay more attention here than in the United States," said Tom Britton, 63, an Ajijic real estate agent originally from the Houston area.
"Part of the reason they are here is because of the problems back home," he said, pointing to soaring U.S. health care and living costs and recent jolts to the economy and stock market. "Especially retirees watching their 401(k)s go down one third in a heartbeat."
Still, some Americans here like being as far from the election action as possible, even if that distance is cut considerably by satellite TV. Democrats could not say how many expatriates they had registered, but they say it's not anywhere near everybody eligible.
"I'm so happy to be away from it all," said Judy Register, 55, an ex-postal worker from Nevada who usually votes Republican but isn't planning to vote because she doesn't like any of the people running.
"There's so much negativity," agreed her husband, Dennis Register, 59, who's more of a Democrat but isn't planning to vote either. "And it's been like that for years."
mattson.sean(at)gmail.com
The Global Primary will take place from February 5 to 12, 2008. Democrats Abroad will hold a Democratic Global Presidential Primary by Internet, mail or fax, and in-person at two Puerto Vallarta Voting Centers. (Click HERE for more info) |
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