Hispanic / Latino

PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, USC's Annenberg School for Communication, Latino Public Broadcasting and Southwest Airlines are presenting a compelling new documentary by Phillip Rodriguez -- "Latinos '08" -- this Wednesday, October 8, at 9 p.m. ET.

PBS interviewed Simon for the new documentary, which is described here:

From Immigrants to Mainstream to Majority, Latinos '08 Focuses on the Unprecedented Clout of the Country;'s Fastest Growing Demographic - How Latinos Will Impact this Election and American Politics for Decades to Come

In early September, NDN released new polling by long-time NDN collaborator Sergio Bendixen on how the immigration issue is playing in key battleground states. In May, NDN released Hispanics Rising II, an important report on Hispanic electoral and demographic trends.

Check TV listings for your local PBS station and tune in Wednesday night!

NDN has followed U.S. Sen. John McCain's track record on Immigration. The latest is John McCain's second ad on immigration in Spanish. Andres commented on the ad during an interview with NPR:

"It's disturbing to me, as a Hispanic, to have someone who feels he can blatantly deceive and think people won't pay attention," says Andres Ramirez, vice president for Hispanic programs at NDN..."

Marisa wrote about the ad, and NDN has long advocated on: 1) the importance of the Hispanic vote (this demographic could very well swing several southern and western states in this election), and 2) the issue of immigration as a motivating factor in the way many Hispanics vote regardless of whether they are native or foreign born - this is thanks to the GOP strategy of turning the debate on immigration into a debate on whether Hispanics should be in this country.

Actually, McCain's message on immigration is not mixed at all - since 2006 he's been consistently against immigration reform. The first and second ads focus on misrepresenting Obama's position on immigration, but at no time do they state McCain's position - much less go as far as saying that McCain supports immigration reform. Instead, since the GOP now recognizes that Hispanics respond negatively to these anti-Hispanic attacks, they created the same kind of degrading ad except this time they (inaccurately)attribute the comments about Mexico and immigrants to Barack Obama.

So will McCain's attempt at making Obama seem anti-Hispanic work? Andres is right - it's not working. NDN and analysts across the board believe the large numbers of Hispanic voters in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida could be decisive in those swing states. Our latest polling in these states showed that Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain by at least 30 points among Hispanics in the Southwest, and specifically on the issue of immigration, Hispanics believe Barack Obama would do a better job than John McCain. Even in Florida, where the candidates were even among Hispanics (42%-42%), when asked about immigration, 42% of voters trusted Barack Obama to better handle the issue over 37% preferring John McCain. The largest difference was in Nevada, where 60% of Hispanics trusted Barack Obama more on the issue of immigration, while only 18% preferred John McCain.

And the latest ad makes no sense when put in context - on the one hand, the McCain campaign launches this ad to attempt to portray Obama as anti-immigrant, while on the other hand, they create another ad in English and Spanish that attacks Obama for allegedly voting against allowing people to own guns in order to defend themselves from these "criminal aliens" who are "crossing illegally into our country." So which is it?

In a year when the Hispanic electorate has nearly doubled from what it was in 2000 (from 7.5 million to approximately 14 million this year), given that Hispanics make up a large part of the electorate in key Southern and Western states, and given that Hispanics are mobilizing to get out the vote, to vote early and vote absentee in those states, it does not bode well for John McCain.

It's been quite a week for NDN in the media.

Yesterday, Fox News gave Michael Moynihan and NDN's Green Project a lot of the credit (or blame? You Decide...) for getting legislation to create a Clean Energy Investment Bank into the House. Michael also got good mentions from the Carbon Tax Center and Carbon Control News.

Rob and Simon's critical work on solving the financial crisis and keeping people in their homes was covered in The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press (twice, here and here), The Chicago Sun-Times, The Huffington Post,  The Hill, and The Phoenix.

NDN's work on immigration reform and Hispanic issues was covered by several major news sources this week, including Newsweek, The Guardian, and NPR, as well as Fort Collins Now, The Miami New Times, HispanicTips.com, and Scoop.

The Washington Post and HispanicTips.com covered the expansion of NDN affiliate The New Policy Institute's Adelante campaign, which has new ads airing in the DC Metro area in addition to Colorado and Nevada. The Statesman also covered the campaign.

Finally, Simon is quoted in The American Prospect this week on the internal dynamics of the evolving Democratic majority in Congress.

Yesterday the McCain campaign revived the presidential immigration battle with another Spanish-language television commercial blaming Barack Obama for killing immigration reform.

According to the Washington Post the ad, called "Fraudulent," will air in Colorado and New Mexico:

Here's the script:

"So what's worse? That Barack Obama and his allies in Congress killed immigration reform? Or that their immigration attacks were called 'unfair,' 'absolutely and directly wrong' and even 'fraudulent' by the press. Or that Obama and his liberal allies think the U.S. has an immigration problem because Mexico is a quote, 'dysfunctional society'? They've said no to us long enough. This election, let's tell them no."

McCain's continued attacks on Obama over the immigration issue is evidence that at the national level the GOP is well aware they need Hispanic voters this November. Recent polling from NDN suggests that McCain could be in serious trouble in the Mountain West, particularly in states like Nevada and Colorado.

Makes one wonder, though, if he's bothered to pass that sentiment on to his friends and colleagues in down-ballot races this year. They certainly don't appear to be on message:

Senator Dole (R-NC) has spent most of the cycle touting her deportation-only strategy. You can see the ads here and here.

Congressman Virgil Goode (VA-05) is up with a negative ad on immigration and has been more than eager to blame immigrants and their "anchor babies" essentially calling for a repeal of birthright citizenship. You can watch it here.

Congressional Candidate Jay Love is up with an ad in Alabama claiming immigrants come to America to take our jobs.

And those are just a few examples. Overall, the Republican platform is decidedly deportation-only and largely anti-immigrant. Does Senator McCain really believe the Hispanic electorate won't notice?

Note to the McCain campaign: Latino voters speak English and can hear those anti-immigrant ads loud and clear, amigos. Running ads in Spanish won't erase the damage being done by your own party. The evidence is pretty clear, the GOP has Dos Caras where immigration is concerned.

UPDATE: What happens when the NRA tries to play to the nativist base and pander to the Latino vote at the same time? Hilarity ensues: How do you say backfire en Español?

NDN affiliate The New Policy Institute is excited to annouce the expansion of its Spanish-language voter education and mobilization campaign. Starting tomorrow, the ads will be heard in the greater Washington, DC, metropolitan area in addition to Colorado and Nevada. The campaign has also added two new spots to its lineup of radio ads urging citizens to "move forward and vote."

The media campaign, Adelante, Spanish for "Moving Forward," is a public education campaign that encourages people to vote, explains the process of voting (including early and absentee voting), and targets what is projected to be a large pool of first-time Hispanic voters. For example, in northern Virginia, where most Hispanics are U.S. citizens, the Hispanic population nearly tripled between 1990 and 2006, according to a study by the Cooper Center.

Adelante kicked off last Tuesday with an extensive radio buy in Colorado in Denver (stations KBNO, KXPK, KJMN, and KMXA), Colorado Springs/Pueblo (stations KNKN and KRYE) and Ft. Collins/Greeley (station KGRE) and the launch of a Web site, www.adelante08.org. Just two days later, the ads went up on Las Vegas radio stations KISF, KWID, KRGT and KRRN. Tomorrow, all three ads will start airing on radio stations WILC, WACA and WZLZ in the greater DC metropolitan area, which includes the northern Virgina, southern Maryland and DC media media markets. Ads will air through November 3.

The first ad on the air, "Acuérdate," ("Remember"), will now air in Colorado, Nevada and the DC metropolitan area (starting tomorrow). Additionally, two powerful new ads, "Siglo" ("Century") and "Premios" ("Awards"), have also been put in rotation along with the first and are on the air in Colorado, Nevada and the DC metropolitan area (starting tomorrow). To listen to the ads or read the transcripts, click here.

In 2000, Cuban-Americans represented 70 percent of Florida's Hispanic electorate. Today they make up less than half of the Latino electorate in that state, largely attributable to a large influx of new voters originally from Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela and other Central and South American countries. The result: Florida's Hispanic demographic is increasingly reflective of the transformation the Hispanic community has undergone across the country - increasingly diverse and not as party-loyal. As a result, both political parties are working to win over what Newsweek called the "Latino mix" in a piece today by Arian Campo-Flores. NDN has analyzed the trend of Florida's Hispanic population becoming more diverse and less affiliated with the Republican party for years, and conducted a major poll in Florida in 2006.

It is Hispanics who make Florida increasingly relevant this year. By all accounts, U.S. Sen. John McCain would not have won the Florida primary - and thus would probably not have been his party's presidential nominee - had he not won the 54% of the Hispanic vote that he won in the Republican primary election, while he only won 33% of the white vote and took that election with 36% of the vote overall. Thus, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama is fighting in Florida, just today President Bill Clinton - loved by Hispanic Democrats and many overall - was campaigning for him in the state. As explained in Newsweek by our friend and collaborator, Sergio Bendixen:

"Now they need to have a domestic message"-terrain that favors Democrats these days. If he manages to capitalize on the opportunity, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama could outdo John Kerry's performance in 2004, when the Massachusetts senator captured 44 percent of Florida's Latino vote. "If [Obama] gets 55 percent, then he would pretty much ensure winning the state," says Sergio Bendixen, a pollster for the New Democratic Network (NDN) and expert in Hispanic public opinion."

And that is the relevance of the Latino Mix. As NDN explains at length in Hispanics Rising II, party ID among Hispanics can change very quickly, and this election in particular does not favor the party in the White House. Republican anti-immigrant campaigns have been perceived as anti-Hispanic, Latinos have the highest rate of unemployment as a result of this economic crisis, and the latest - now minorities are being blamed by right-wing conservatives for the housing crisis. 2008 primary exit polls showed a 66% increase in Hispanic turnout in Democratic primaries and Hispanic party ID became 72% Democrat, while in 2004 it was closer to 60%. Our latest polling data shows that the Presidential race among Hispanics in Florida is in a dead heat - 42% favoring McCain and 42% favoring Obama.

The question remains - as Florida's Hispanic electorate grows and becomes more complex, who benefits? I would say Hispanics do. The reality of a more complex demographic is that to win Florida, John McCain and Barack Obama will have to do so based on the strength of non-Cuban Hispanic support.

This election cycle, many people have complained that the traditional media has not been doing its job all that well. The general complaint is that instead of giving voters the information they need to make informed and intelligent decisions, the ratings-driven mainstream media increasingly focuses on distractions and sound bites. Some have called for the reform of our traditional media; others have simply bypassed it.

We believe in engaging the non-traditional media. Here are a few of our new-media mentions from the past week:

DailyKos, The Latino Journal, and The South Chicagoan referenced our recent polls of Hispanic voters in key battleground states.

Simon and Rob Shapiro are featured in The American Prospect’s blog, Tapped, as well as Biodun Iginla’s BBC weblog, for their joint statement, “Keep People in Their Homes.” Shapiro also appears in Campaign for America’s Future.

Finally, Michael Moynihan, Director of NDN’s Green Project, has posts in The Huffington Post and Gristmill.

Today, The New Policy Institute, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) affiliate of NDN, is excited to announce that we are expanding our new Spanish-language voter mobilization campaign, Adelante, into Nevada.
 
Adelante, Spanish for "Moving Forward," kicked off Tuesday with an extensive radio buy in Colorado and the launch of a Web site, www.adelante08.org. The campaign encourages people to vote and explains the process of voting, including early and absentee voting, to what is projected to be a large pool of first-time Hispanic voters.

Today, Adelante will begin airing the same ad, "Acuérdate," or "Remember," that is airing in Colorado, in the Las Vegas media market. The ad will air on Las Vegas radio stations KISF, KWID, KRGT and KRNN.

To listen to the ad, click here. 

The Adelante campaign was launched with the support of people just like you. You can help us add more ads to the campaign and expand into other states by contributing today. Please click here to support Adelante, or contact David O'Donnell at dodonnell@ndn.org or 202-544-9200 to learn more about what you can help the New Policy Institute do.

Hoy, el centro de investigación llamado The New Policy Institute, un filial de NDN sin fin de lucro y no-partidario, lanzó una campaña para motivar a ciudadanos Hispanohablantes a votar este Noviembre.

La campaña se llama Adelante. Comienza esta semana con anuncios a punto de saturación del mercado de radio en Colorado, y con una página de Internet, www.adelante08.org. La campaña hará dos cosas: por un lado ayudará a motivar al público a votar y por otro lado explicará el proceso para votar, incluyendo información sobre votación temprana y votación ausente. Se espera que gran parte del público serán Hispanos que van a votar por primera vez. La primera fase de la campaña comienza hoy en Colorado. Entre hoy y el día de las elecciones, Adelante lanzará cientos de anuncios en Denver (estaciones KBNO, KXPX, KJMN y KMXA), Colorado Springs/Pueblo (estaciones KNKN y KRYE), y en Fort Collins/Greeley (estación KGRE). Para escuchar el primer anuncio, “Acuérdate”, o leer el guión del anuncio y la traducción al Inglés, haga clic aquí.

Para más información sobre el electorado en los Estados Unidos, vea el reporte recientemente publicado por NDN, Hispanics Rising II. Durante muchos años, NDN y sus filiales han luchado para asegurarse de que la voz de la comunidad creciente de Latinos sea escuchada dentro del gran debate que informa a la democracia Estadounidense. Esta campaña es el capítulo mas reciente dentro de este esfuerzo de muchos años.

-- Guión del anuncio --

Español:

MUJER: ¿Qué tan lejos hemos llegado?
HOMBRE: Acuérdate de Roberto Clemente.
MUJER: De la misma Selena.
HOMBRE: O de César Chávez.
MUJER: Sí, hemos llegado muy lejos, pero no podemos vivir de glorias pasadas.
HOMBRE: Este año, de ti depende decidir si nos quedamos hasta donde hemos llegado o seguimos avanzando.
MUJER: Sigue adelante y vota.

Mensaje pagado por Adelante, NPI y el Tides Center.

Today, The New Policy Institute, a non-partisan 501 c (3) affiliate of NDN, has launched a new campaign to encourage Spanish-speaking citizens to vote this November.

The campaign is called Adelante, Spanish for “Moving Forward.” The campaign kicks off this week with saturation-level statewide radio spots in Colorado, and the launch of a new Web site, www.adelante08.org. The campaign will both encourage people to vote and explain the process of voting, including early and absentee voting, to what is projected to be a large pool of first-time Hispanic voters.

The first phase of the paid media portion of the campaign begins today in Colorado. Between now and Election Day, the Adelante campaign will run hundreds of radio spots in Denver (stations KBNO, KXPX, KJMN, and KMXA), Colorado Springs/Pueblo (stations KNKN and KRYE) and Ft. Collins/Greeley (station KGRE).

To listen to the first ad, "Acuérdate," or "Remember," click here. A transcript of the ad, and the English translation, are below.

For more background on Hispanic voting trends in the United States, please view NDN’s recent report, Hispanics Rising II.

For many years now, NDN and its affiliates have worked to ensure that the voice of the fast-growing Latino community is heard in the great debate that informs American democracy. This campaign is the latest installment in that long-standing effort.

To read the script in Spanish and English, please see below:

Español:

MUJER: ¿Qué tan lejos hemos llegado?
HOMBRE: Acuérdate de Roberto Clemente.
MUJER: De la misma Selena.
HOMBRE: O de César Chávez.
MUJER: Sí, hemos llegado muy lejos, pero no podemos vivir de glorias pasadas.
HOMBRE: Este año, de ti depende decidir si nos quedamos hasta donde hemos llegado o seguimos avanzando.
MUJER: Sigue adelante y vota.
Mensaje pagado por Adelante, NPI y el Tides Center.

English:

WOMAN: How far have we come?
MAN: Remember Roberto Clemente.
WOMAN: Or Selena.
MAN: Or even César Chávez.
WOMAN: Yes, we have come really far, but we can’t live from glories of the past. 
MAN: This year, it is up to you to decide if we stay where we are or if we continue to move forward.
WOMAN: Move foward and vote.
Message paid for by Adelante, NPI and the Tides Center.