Kerry campaigns to Hispanic voters in Western states

PUEBLO, Colo. — Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry yesterday continued his swing through the three Western states that his campaign thinks are still in play, breaking into more Spanish than usual in a push for Hispanic voters.

“This is absolutely the most important election of our lifetime,” Mr. Kerry said, before repeating the line in Spanish, then going on to list — in both English and Spanish — his priorities such as health care, jobs and U.S. leadership in the world.

Though he’s visited Colorado a half dozen times, Mr. Kerry made his first appearance with Ken Salazar, the state’s Democratic attorney general who is running against Pete Coors for the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Republican.

In this Republican-leaning state, the Kerry campaign is hoping that the popular Mr. Salazar can boost Mr. Kerry, rather than the usual pattern of a popular, national-ticket figure helping the local candidate.

They think Mr. Salazar can help the Massachusetts senator, particularly with Hispanic voters. In a memo to reporters, the campaign said there are 200,000 newly registered voters in Colorado, and 75,000 of them are Hispanic.

President Bush won 35 percent of the Hispanic vote nationwide in 2000, and his campaign has set a goal of topping that this year, counting on a strong showing in states such as Florida.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Kerry campaigned behind a sign reading “Unidos con Kerry Edwards” in Las Cruces, N.M., in Dona Ana County, where the 2000 census found that 63 percent of the population identified itself as Hispanic or Latino.

The two rallies followed an evening rally Friday in Reno, Nev., and marked a slow period of campaigning before an expected major speech on his values and beliefs today, and an appearance with former President Bill Clinton tomorrow.

While repeating most of his basic set of campaign promises, Mr. Kerry has honed his argument against Mr. Bush’s war on terrorism and the fighting in Iraq, telling the Colorado audience yesterday that he would train Iraqi police and get allies involved to “get our troops home where they belong.”

He also has sharpened his criticism of the way Mr. Bush has fought the war on terror in Afghanistan, telling the rally in Reno that if he had been president, American troops would have captured or killed Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora in December 2001, and blamed Mr. Bush for turning the job over to Afghan warlords.

“Can you imagine trusting them when you have your 10th Mountain Division, the United States Marine Corps, when you had all the power and ability of the best-trained military in the world?” he said. “I would have used our military and we would have gone after and captured or killed Osama bin Laden.”

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, called that argument “political amnesia.”

“Kerry praised our military’s actions at Tora Bora when the fighting was taking place, but when the election is 10 days away and Kerry smells a political opportunity, that same battle is the first thing he criticizes,” Mr. Schmidt said. “His hypocrisy is no surprise from a candidate who voted against body armor for troops for his own political benefit.”

Retired Gen. Tommy Franks, who headed U.S. Central Command during those operations, has defended the decision to use local fighters, saying they knew the caves and the mountains best.

In Nevada, Mr. Kerry campaigned with Jim Rassmann, a Special Forces officer who Mr. Kerry plucked out of the water in the action that earned him a Bronze Star.

A day after telling women voters in Wisconsin that they are now living with myraid worries thanks to Mr. Bush’s presidency, he told supporters that the president is playing on their fears by accusing him of being timid in the war on terror.

“He may want you to vote out of your fears. I want you to vote out of your hopes and your dreams and your aspirations,” Mr. Kerry said.

Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico are the three Western states that the Kerry campaign considers to be still in play. But Colorado and Nevada are long shots for the Democrat, with several polls showing Mr. Bush with a lead of 6 percent in Colorado and one poll showing him leading by 10 percent in Nevada.

New Mexico is more in reach — Al Gore won the state in 2000, unlike Colorado and Nevada — and some polls show Mr. Kerry leading, while others give Mr. Bush a very slim lead.