Latinos Shun GOP

A SURVEY by the Latino Coalition has found that Latino registered voters now favor Democrats by 56% to 19% in the upcoming election. The reason, of course, is the hardline GOP position on legalizing the undocumented.

The poll is a disaster for the GOP, which took 44% of the Latino vote in 2004 when President George W. Bush depended heavily on their increased vote for him for his victory.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that the Latino backlash has become so strong that the outreach effort that Bush began to attract Latinos is “now in danger of collapse.”

That is bad news for President Bush and his guru Karl Rove, who had built up the Hispanic connection to help create a long term Republican majority. The GOP cannot blame Bush for the collapse as he has been in favor of comprehensive immigration reform throughout.

Not so his hard right House members. Now a backlash has developed. A symptom of that is that the Latino Coalition, a pro-Republican organization headed by Hector Barreto, a former Bush administration appointee, is now endorsing only Democrats, including even Hillary Clinton in her New York Senate race. That’s akin to George Soros backing Republicans.

Even pro-Republican Latino church groups are now reassessing their support for the party in light of GOP antics over the undocumented.

“There is a fissure and I doubt it will be closed in this election,” said Reverend Louis Cortes, a Republican who founded the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, attended by Bush for the last three years. Cortes heads an organization that spans over 10,000 churches.

Cortes and other Hispanic church leaders say they watched with amazement as Republicans voted for a 700 mile fence, and to try to make it a felony to help undocumented immigrants.

While the latter effort did not become law, Hispanic church leaders say it would have criminalized their efforts to help undocumented. ”If voting is about personal interests, how are Hispanics to vote? They will vote against those guys,” Cortes noted.

NY Times for King’s Opponent

The New York Times has endorsed Long Island Republican Congressman Pete King’s opponent, David Mejias, in their race for Congress in the third congressional district on the Island.

The Times endorsement is significant because it has backed King in all of his recent races, not surprising really as the district has always been a Republican bastion.

The Times says that its endorsement has to do with difference on issues from “taxes and Iraq to abortion and immigration.”

“Mr. King also lost us with his singular devotion to hardline immigration enforcement measures, particularly the bill he co-sponsored that would make felons of people giving charity to illegal immigrants” the Times states.

Mejias, says the Times, is “one of the few bright bulbs in the low-watt Nassau Legislature.” The paper praises his work on a bill of rights for domestic workers, and on the environment.

King Favored to Win

MEANWHILE, a report in Newsday says that King is facing a very difficult challenge, but nonetheless one he should win, despite that fact it quotes local Democratic officials as saying that they “smell blood” in the race.

The numbers, however, are on King’s side. Republicans outnumber Democrats 181,000 to 122,000 in the district, a huge lead, with 94,000 independent voters. It is also the only congressional district on Long Island that President Bush carried two years ago.

The only poll in the district so far showed King barely ahead, 48% to 46%, but King staffers ridiculed it because it was based on computer generated calls rather than human voices. They say their internals have had him up as much as 30 points.

However, King announced this week that he is spending his entire war chest, about $1.6 million in this campaign, hardly the sign of someone who is cruising to victory.

King also says he is in charge of his own re-election. “I do most of it myself,” he says. “I’m the smartest guy around. Why should I pay someone else?”

The Mighty Quinn

NEW York City Council President Christine Quinn is quickly gathering many Irish supporters as she continues her rise in popularity in New York politics.

Last week Quinn hosted senior New York political figures at a City Hall press conference announcing support for the St. Andrew’s Agreement in Northern Ireland. It was the kind of deft move that she has become known for.

After an early hiccup where she tried to reason with the New York Parade Committee on the gays in the parade issue, Quinn has gone on to display a sure touch in dealing with her fellow Irish.

With a mayoral run on the cards for 2009, it is hardly surprising that she is putting together a solid ethnic base. She has also been able to do it from the position of City Council Speaker, not the easiest power base.

Healey Booed At GAA Games

THE anti-immigrant candidate for governor of Massachusetts, Kerry Healey, was booed arriving and departing the GAA in Canton on Sunday.

The games were attended by several thousand supporters of the GAA, many of whom were undocumented.

She received a very hostile reception from the crowd, with several Republican business owners from Boston saying that they would not be able to support her because of her stance on immigration.

It was pointed out to her by many people that she was actively calling for the criminalization of many of the people both attending and playing the games, a contradiction which she was unable to reconcile (despite wearing an Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform t-shirt!)