Unity Council draws attention

Kirsten Searer

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 | 10:52 a.m.

A new group looking to increase the political stature of Nevada's minorities already has attracted the attention of some political powerhouses.

The Unity Council of Nevada, a coalition formed in January of several dozen Hispanic, black and Asian-American groups, expects at least 500 people to attend the organization's first fund-raiser Friday evening at the Tropicana, said Marlene Monteolivo, the group's Hispanic outreach coordinator.

Monteolivo pointed out that minorities formed about 49 percent of the state's population in the 2000 census, and she thinks the number has passed 50 percent now.

"We definitely need to get involved," she said. "Power is not shared. So we need to do our bit to speak through our vote."

The group plans to raise money for voter education and voter registration projects.

Nevada residents rank among the lowest in the nation for voter registration rates, but the numbers are even more dismal among the state's minorities.

Less than 50 percent of Nevada's eligible black residents are registered, and the number of Hispanic citizens registered is less than 24 percent.

While minorities clearly could form a powerful voting block, the Unity Council won't endorse candidates or take sides on partisan issues, leaders said.

"They just want people to go to vote," said Mike Vaswani, the Asian-American outreach coordinator. "We will not tell them who to vote for. Not yet."

Indeed, both Republicans and Democrats seem to be ready to get a piece of the minority vote, should the group take off. The list of people with Friday's event on their schedule includes: Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev.

"He (Porter) believes in the concept of what the Unity Council is doing and encourages and supports more minority participation in the democratic process," said Porter's press secretary, Adam Mayberry.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., will be attending meetings in Northern Nevada on Friday.

A variety of other local notables, from soon-to-be County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald to Clark County Manager Thom Reilly also are scheduled to attend.

The key to increasing minority influence in politics is to get voters registered and encourage them to show up at the polls, said Gary Gray, a political consultant who has supported the group.

Several political groups have tried to tap into the minority base in Nevada, but "nothing has gotten off the ground," Gray said.

So when political consultants look at which voting populations to approach, they sometimes overlook minorities because they don't vote as often, said Gray, who has been running campaigns in Nevada for more than 20 years.

It's not cost effective "to campaign heavily to them, to give them any special emphasis," he said.

Hispanic citizens often are reluctant to vote because they don't trust the political system, Monteolivo said. Hispanic groups participating in the Unity Council include small groups of people from all over South America, the Caribbean and Mexico.

"The people don't have faith in the system," Monteolivo said. "It's up to people like members of the Unity Council to educate them. It might not be perfect, but it's the best system in the world."

Many blacks don't vote because they feel disenfranchised, said James Chaney, the group's African American outreach coordinator.

"A lot of people just don't have any good feelings about voter registration and voter education," he said.

He said he fears the number of blacks voting in this presidential election will be even lower this year because some think votes weren't counted in the 2000 presidential election.

"We tell them we can't defeat unemployment until we can register and vote," he said. "We can't defeat dropouts until we can change the school boards."

Asian-Americans do have a higher voting rate, Vaswani said. Yet the group is relatively small in Nevada and can have more of an influence by banding with other minority groups, he said.

Ultimately, the Unity Council hopes to raise money to have a large event before early voting begins this year. The group would educate minorities about how to register and vote, and how their vote could make a different in Nevada, a battleground state, Chaney said.

The group will talk about issues in national and local races, Chaney said.

In the last 18 months, he has registered about 5,000 voters in district one, he said. He said he is driven to register voters because he came from Louisiana and his mother never had the opportunity to vote.

"A lot of people gave up their lives, went to prison, so we could vote," he said. "I'm just trying to bridge the gap to help the people who thought they didn't have a reason to vote and give them a reason to vote."