Performance of Hispanic candidates ‘disappointing’

Erin Neff and Timothy Pratt

Thursday, Sept. 5, 2002 | 11:35 a.m.

The 2002 elections were hyped as the first in which Hispanic candidates could finally make major inroads into the largely white political establishment.

During and after the 2001 redistricting, Hispanics mobilized as a force to shake things up, and this year, 28 Hispanic candidates filed for office in Clark County.

Eighteen faced primary elections, and only five advanced to the general election in November. The other 10 did not have primary opponents.

"My biggest disappointment Tuesday night was the performance of Hispanic candidates," Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said.

Touted candidates such as Moises Denis, George Cantu, David Griego and Andres Ramirez fell flat, with Cantu and Ramirez finishing third out of three candidates in their respective races and Griego getting trounced by a conservative candidate.

Ted Jelen, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said redistricting emboldened certain candidates who traditionally might have waited for an even better opportunity.

"Redistricting had an impact perhaps indirectly by giving plausible challengers the sense that they had a chance," Jelen said.

Hispanic activists, candidates and their backers grimly watched the returns Tuesday night and spent much of Wednesday pointing fingers of blame in different directions and trying to couch the disappointing show as a sense of achievement for finally testing the political waters.

"Given that this is the first time out of the gate for the Hispanic community, I give the candidates a lot of credit," said Tony Alamo, one of the founders of the 20-year-old Latin Chamber of Commerce and a backer of at least five Hispanic candidates -- four of whom lost.

Others, like Ramirez, who lost in a Board of Regents race, said the showing was a success because of the candidates who advanced.

But the performance by Cantu and Denis in Assembly Districts 11 and 28, respectively, were the focus of the most consternation, as both seats were re-drawn to include a majority of Hispanic residents.

"Assembly District 11, with George Cantu running as a Democrat, had 2,231 registered Hispanic Democrats, yet he only garnered 224 votes," said Fernando Romero, vice president for Hispanics in Politics. "Even assuming they were all Hispanic voters, it's a dismal showing."

Romero said the same about AD 28, with 65 percent Hispanic population and 2,400 registered Hispanic Democrats. Yet Denis, a Democrat, pulled only 539.

"I think this shows we have the apathy of the Hispanic voter going against us, and we have to work on this more in upcoming elections," Romero said.

The activist said future efforts would include more door-to-door campaigning and rallies in heavy Hispanic districts -- something congressional candidate Dario Herrera also plans as he prepares for the general election.

After Tuesday's primary, Nevada's leading Democrats, questioned what had gone wrong, perhaps fearing a similar problem in the general election when Herrera faces Republican Jon Porter for Nevada's new congressional seat.

Herrera campaign spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said "primaries and general elections are two very different things."

Alexander said the campaign is continuing to work on all get-out-the-vote and registration efforts, including an aggressive targeting of Hispanic voters.

At least one Republican Hispanic candidate pointed blame at the other party.

"The Democrats did not come through on the promises they made during redistricting to back up Hispanic candidates," said Luis Valera, a Republican without a primary challenge in Assembly District 17 on Tuesday. "I think they thought the Hispanics wouldn't go through with running and when they did, the party didn't know what to do."

Perkins recoiled at the suggestion, instead saying it was his party that helped craft Assembly districts that had Hispanic representation of 65 percent and more than 50 percent. Republicans wanted several districts where Hispanic populations would run between 30 and 40 percent, he said.

"We wanted nothing more than to give them the seats," Perkins said. "But at some point, it's someone else's responsibility."

He also suggested that Valera, who will face Democrat Kelvin Atkinson in November, will be pointing blame elsewhere after he loses in a 20 percent Hispanic district.

But Alamo, a senior vice president in the Mandalay Resort Group, said a lack of financial support for many of the Hispanic candidates is a reason many of them lost.

"These candidates were definitely under-funded," Alamo said.

Valera won't be a good test of that theory as he has raised more than $100,000, including $10,000 from U.S. Sen. John Ensign.

But for other candidates, Alamo said he would like to see the Latin Chamber of Commerce assume a role to train candidates and help them raise funds.

Ramirez agreed.

"Presently, as a group, we don't have an organized entity to raise money and help candidates, and the Latin Chamber is the ideal organization to do this," Ramirez said.

As for voters, it remains to be seen whether well-funded and trained Hispanic candidates will always draw the Hispanic vote.

"For me, it's about which candidate offers the best options," said Juan Jose Alvarado, voting for the first time on Tuesday after becoming a citizen in 1999. "If the candidate is Hispanic, I'm going to pay attention to him. But if he's not, and I like him, then I'll vote for him."