Columnist Jon Ralston: Hispanic vote is suddenly desirable

Saturday, Aug. 26, 2000 | 3:13 a.m.

Jon Ralston, who publishes the Ralston Report, writes a column for the Sun on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com

TIME WAS that when Nevada political consultants had a chance to think about the minority vote, they scoffed at the Hispanic population.

The conventional wisdom was elemental. They don't live in an easily definable geographic area such as West Las Vegas, where a sizable portion of the black vote can be mobilized. They don't register to vote, so their numbers don't matter. And even the small percentage registered to vote don't go to the polls in large percentages. So why bother targeting an evanescent voting bloc?

Oh, how times have changed. Judging by the hundreds of people who attended Friday's Latin Chamber of Commerce candidates' forum at the Stardust, including a flock of candidates, that conventional wisdom has become obsolete. There was so much genuflecting to the Hispanic community going on during lunchtime you would have thought the venue was a church, not a hotel-casino. Or, at least, Sun City's Desert Vista Community Center, where candidates coming on bended knee to pray for senior support has become a biennial ritual.

The pandering wasn't even subtle. In fact, it was so obvious as to almost be overtly condescending. Senate candidate Ed Bernstein and Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone somehow let it slip that their spouses were of Hispanic extraction -- see, you people, we understand you better because our wives are like you. Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid, either displaying a sardonic side rarely seen or desperately trying to find a way to suck up, came on after them and said she was a melange of backgrounds -- Spanish included, of course.

Actually, Bernstein was the only one who actually gave anything remotely approaching a substantive speech to the crowd, using issues that he knew a Latino audience would care about. He pummeled Republican John Ensign for his votes on the census method and illegal aliens. Ensign had already left the forum but must have known what was coming -- he condescended to the crowd in another way when he spoke just before Bernstein by praising his opponent for running a positive campaign. "People across our state are asking for these kinds of races," he declared.

The crowd responded enthusiastically, presumably proving that they had been bamboozled by the oldest front-runner trick in the book, which is to try to make his foe look nasty when he goes negative. It's the "I'm shocked, shocked that he won't keep this campaign on the high road" ploy. I guess the Hispanic community should be proud -- a candidate is using the same stunts with that crowd that he would with any other. Only in politics could it be a compliment to be talked down to.

State Sen. Jon Porter, who is running for Congress, was about the only candidate who essentially told the crowd why he and the others were there sucking up. The numbers speak for themselves, as Porter pointed out. By the year 2025, there will be 600,000 Hispanics in Nevada, more than twice as many as there are today, which is more than twice as many as there were six years ago.

Yes, many Hispanics still don't register to vote and Latinos do not reside in an easily mobilized geographic part of the valley. But they have such overwhelming numbers that they can no longer be ignored.

Even elected officials not up for election this year were there to kiss the collective ring, including Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera and Las Vegas City Councilman Michael Mack. Herrera, who is Hispanic, is the first Latin elected official in years who has the potential to be a statewide power and could harness those hundreds of thousands of voters to get where he wants to go -- Congress and/or governor.

The days are long gone in Nevada when the Hispanic community can be ignored. Even if they still aren't organized and still can't demonstrate they will vote in great numbers, Friday's event proved the perception that Hispanics will make a difference.

And politics also is one of those worlds where perception is everything.