Hispanics seek voter bloc too big to ignore

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By Stephen Dinan

SAN DIEGO | The nearly 200 immigrants who began the citizenship process at the National Council of La Raza's annual convention Saturday are exactly the sort who will determine whether Hispanics this year finally make good on their enormous political potential.

After decades of punching beneath their political weight, NCLR and its allies have vowed to boost Hispanic voter participation in this election by eating away at the gap between Hispanics eligible to vote and the number who turn out on Election Day.

"One of the themes that will definitely be established is you cannot expect to get to the White House and ignore this community," said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, NCLR's director of immigration and national campaigns.

She said her group hopes to lower the nonparticipation rate and turn out 10 million Hispanic voters for the first time.

In 2004, 6.7 million Hispanics, or 47.6 percent of those of voting age and holding citizenship, cast ballots. The voting rate was far below the 60 percent of eligible blacks and 64.1 percent of all eligible Americans. Although the Hispanic population is larger, nearly twice as many black voters turned out as Hispanics.

In a sign that the presidential candidates expect this to be the year Hispanics live up to their potential, both of the major parties' presumptive nominees are completing the Hispanic triumvirate -- speeches to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and, this week, to NCLR. Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, speaks Sunday, and Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, speaks Monday.

On Friday, NCLR President Janet Murguia challenged both presidential candidates to take a stand against "inaccurate and inflammatory language" she said those in both parties are using on the immigration issue, adding that "hate has hijacked the immigration debate."

As examples, she pointed to a leaflet from the Missouri State Democratic Committee that accused a Republican candidate of allowing 5 million illegal immigrants into the country and to a commercial being run by a Republican congressional candidate in Alabama using images of brown hands in handcuffs.

"Our political leaders can stop it," she said. "They should stop it."

Both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama lay claim to leadership on a broad immigration bill that includes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants - an issue that is helping drive Hispanic voters.