Key votes: Parties court growing Hispanic constituency

Wednesday, April 17, 2002 | 11:25 a.m.

Americo Mia, nervous but happy after being sworn in as a citizen earlier this month on the sixth floor of the George Federal Building, stopped on the first floor to take his next step as an American -- registering to vote.

"I'm so glad I now have the right to say what I want by voting, and have it be counted," he said.

Little did he know he was among thousands of Hispanics being anxiously counted by Republicans and Democrats eager to woo what political analysts say could be a key factor in the coming elections: the Hispanic vote.

Rapid growth in the state's Hispanic population is raising political eyebrows statewide and nationally, and bringing about numerous changes. Nevada Republican Party staffers are learning Spanish, the state Democratic Party is counting voters by ethnicity, and the first political consultant specializing in Hispanic voters opened an office in Las Vegas this month.

With both parties closely watching Nevada's congressional races, especially the new Congressional District 3, the Hispanic vote takes on particular importance, said Larry Gonzalez, Washington director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.

"If these races are close ... the national spotlight may soon be on Nevada's Hispanic vote," he said.

At the heart of the hunt for voters with Hispanic surnames is a statistic politicians can't ignore: Nevada has the fastest-growing Hispanic population among the nine states where those populations are higher than the national average.

Hispanics made up 12.5 percent of the nation's population in the last census. In Nevada the figure was 19.7 percent, compared with 10.4 percent in 1990. In Clark County Hispanics made up 22 percent of the population in 2000.

The high stakes have created wrangling between the parties for the attention of local Hispanic organizations that influence voters -- a phenomenon that wouldn't exist if the census numbers weren't so impressive, political analysts said.

A recent example was the fallout created by perceived slights at a political academy for Hispanic college students held in February by Hispanics in Politics, the only Hispanic-member organization in Southern Nevada that endorses candidates.

Republicans complained afterward that the 90 or so young people in the academy were shown videos only of Rep. Shelley Berkley and Sen. Harry Reid, both Democrats, said Tony Sanchez, a board member and one of the event's organizers.

Democrats groused that Republicans had a table with party literature, while they weren't invited to do the same.

"Actually, we made a concerted effort to be very inclusive, especially since the event involves young people who are future voters and candidates and still haven't developed party affiliations," the group's president, Fran Montes, said.

"Both the videos and the table were each party's own initiative, not something we sought out," she said.

The search for Hispanic voters goes on each Friday, when both parties set up tables in the courthouse lobby to register new citizens -- most of whom are Hispanic -- to vote. The parties are not allowed to influence new voters to affiliate with them, but the volunteers come anyway and count the number who chose their party at the end of the day.

Democrats have the historical advantage in this numbers game, as about two-thirds of Nevada's estimated 65,000 registered Hispanics are Democrats.

"There's a reflexive aspect to Hispanics identifying with the Democrats," Gonzalez said from Washington. "It's often been passed down from one family member to another."

That was borne out a recent Friday by Maria Juana Gonzalez, a brand-new citizen registering to vote for the first time at the federal building. When asked which party she would register with, Gonzalez shrugged and turned to her college-age daughter, who answered, "The Democrats, Mom, they're with the Hispanics and the poor."

But the Republican Party's efforts to reach Hispanics, in Nevada and nationwide, could change that trend, Larry Gonzalez said.

Rudy Fernandez, Washington director of grassroots development for the Republican National Party, said Nevada is one of five or six states nationally that has hired someone whose main job is to reach out to Hispanic voters.

Fernandez said that President Bush's approval rating among Hispanics is key to the outreach effort.

"We're saying, 'If you like what he's doing, we invite you to support us,"' Fernandez said.

Andres Ramirez, chairman of the Hispanic Democratic Caucus, isn't concerned by GOP efforts to woo Hispanics.

"The Republicans have national people getting involved because they have to. We don't. Basically, they're Johnny-come-latelies and can't touch our voter base," he said.

But analysts said the jury is still out about how important party affiliation will be for Hispanic voters in future elections.

"As the Hispanic voter base becomes more sophisticated ... they will go more with candidates than parties," Gonzalez said.

Meanwhile, voter registration forms in Spanish will become available in Nevada for the first time late this month, said Larry Lomax, registrar at the Clark County Elections Department. Both parties have said they plan to take full advantage of them.

"There's always been speculation about more Hispanics not voting due to language barriers," Ramirez said.

"It will be interesting to see what happens now that we don't have that barrier anymore."