Democrats not Funding Hispanic Voter Outreach

WASHINGTON (By Carrie Budoff Brown, Politico) October 21, 2010 — The Democratic National Committee says it is pouring more money into Hispanic voter outreach than during any previous midterm elections — but don’t tell that to leading Hispanic organizers in battleground states, who say they’re seeing little evidence of it.

Organizers expected a dip in activity from two years ago, when the DNC and President Barack Obama’s campaign invested an unprecedented $20 million targeting Hispanic turnout. But the major groups running campaigns in states with large Hispanic populations say the drop-off has been startling, reinforcing an impression that Democrats, after failing to pass an immigration reform bill, continue to take this fastest-growing voting bloc for granted.

“I’ve never seen the investment so anemic,” said Jorge Mursuli, president and CEO of Democracia-Ahora, a Miami-based group with operations in seven states, including Nevada, Pennsylvania and Colorado. “It is like night and day. I think it is going to be devastating.”

Democrats are preparing to launch what has been described as a “major” national and regional TV and radio campaign later this week, according to a source familiar with the plans.

But activists warn that the ad push, while welcome, is a case of too little, too late. And any hard feelings among Hispanic voters this year could have profound implications for 2012.

Obama will need to replicate his strong performance from two years ago among Hispanic voters in the Southwest and in Florida to win a second term. The perceived lack of attention, coupled with disillusionment over the stalled push for comprehensive immigration reform, could put Obama in a hole as he gears up for a reelection fight.

“It is going to cost us lot more money to get Hispanics back in the fold,” Mursuli said. “People will say, ‘Who are you, and where were you?’”

Democratic Party officials insist the money is flowing, as part of what they call a “multimillion-dollar program” with online ads, registration drives, voter protection programs, outreach to national leaders and field operations in targeted states and districts.

“We’re out there talking about what we accomplished together in terms of creating good jobs, expanding access to health care, improving opportunity at the highest levels of government and society and fighting for comprehensive immigration reform,” said Hari Sevugan, a DNC spokesman. “And we are doing it with more resources both in terms of money and manpower than we ever have in a midterm year because it’s critical to the future of the country that the Hispanic community votes.”

The DNC, which said the outreach has been ongoing for 20 months, would not disclose how much it plans to spend in total on targeting Hispanic voters.

To activists, the last-minute feel of the Democratic efforts is a sign of disrespect to an electorate that values relationships. It affirms a perception that the party’s approach is simply transactional, said Rudy Lopez, political director for the Center for Community Change, which operates in 10 states.

“You come in and take what you need and leave,” Lopez said of the party. “It is like the Big Top Circus. A big show comes to town, and you get everyone excited — and after the election is over, you pack up the tent and head over to the next town.”

Without unions such as the Service Employees International Union and a network of nonprofit organizations, “there wouldn’t be a meaningful Hispanic voter mobilization effort,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, which is working with Hispanic organizations on turning out the vote.

The SEIU is sinking $10 million into California alone, while the other groups are spending more than $5 million, according to the organizations.

After several weeks of focusing on African-American voters — a push that included $3 million in DNC ad buys on radio — Obama has stepped up his personal appeal to Hispanics. He hosted a roundtable Tuesday with Hispanic media outlets and will speak Friday with Univision Radio’s Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo, one of the most influential Spanish-language broadcasters in the country. He has conducted several one-on-one interviews with Hispanic journalists in recent weeks, and more interviews are expected before Election Day.

“You can glean everything you need to know about the difference between the two parties with respect to the community when you compare our efforts to expand participation to what we’re seeing on the Republican side, where they are actually running ads saying Hispanics should not vote,” Sevugan said, referring to a third-party ad that ran briefly in Nevada this week.

But as Obama embarked Wednesday on a four-day campaign swing through the West, including Hispanic-heavy Nevada and California, the White House was touting a presidential event for women voters.

“If you compare activity from 2008 to 2010, it shouldn’t have been dropped as much as it dropped,” said Ben Monterroso, executive director of Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, which is organizing in multiple states. “You have to be consistent and respectful, and I don’t think the consistency and the respect of the voter is being shown.”

To be sure, the Democratic pitch is not without flaws. The president promised during the 2008 campaign to produce a comprehensive immigration reform bill within his first year in office. Obama didn’t make good on the pledge, largely because no Republicans would negotiate with Democrats.

Hispanic activists said the story on Republican obstructionism isn’t being heard as broadly as it should be because of what they describe as an absence of investment in Spanish-language ads. Not only that, the Democratic Party missed an opportunity to use the new health care law as a selling point with Hispanics, who have the highest uninsured rate of any ethnic or racial group in the country, according to the Center for American Progress.

And at a time when Republicans are alienating Hispanic voters with hard-hitting immigration ads, most Democrats haven’t tried to capitalize on that gulf.

“The party absolutely understands the importance of the vote, as a base vote and a vote that was very decisive the last time around,” said Fernand Amandi, vice president of Bendixen & Amandi, a leading Hispanic polling firm that worked with Hillary Clinton during the presidential primary and with Obama during the general election. “But to the extent there has been a comprehensive effort to engage this audience through paid communications in Spanish-language media during this election season, I have not seen it.”

Several Democratic Senate candidates have advertised on Spanish-language television, including Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the party’s nominees in those two states and Nevada are running “totally integrated campaigns in the Hispanic community.”

But in Florida, for example, the Democratic and Republican nominees in the “monumentally important” governor’s race have made only “token” buys on Spanish-language television, Amandi said.

“It is a statistical fact the Florida vote in 2008 was decided by the shift in the Hispanic vote. So that is not something I can explain or begin to comprehend,” Amandi said. “If there are not enough resources available to engage that segment of the electorate, then the inescapable conclusion is clearly that electorate is not really important.”

Menendez dismissed the criticism from Hispanic activists as perennial complaints.

“I have dealt with the national groups for 20 years, and I have always heard for 20 years enough is not being spent,” Menendez said. “A campaign has to look at the voter makeup, and if 75 percent of the voter base is of a certain group, you’re going to spend 75 percent of your money on that group. Am I satisfied these campaigns are doing what they can and what they should? My answer is yes.”