Cisneros in town to pitch Kerry to Hispanic leaders

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 | 11:27 a.m.

When Clark County School Board member Larry Mason introduced Henry Cisneros at the Latin Chamber of Commerce Monday, he described the former director of the Housing and Urban Development Department as "the best thing since sliced bread."

Someone in the room crowed, "that would be tortillas."

The exchange was in jest, but the comments about the two staples seemed symbolic of two approaches to the Hispanic electorate, as Cisneros -- one of the few Hispanics ever to hold a cabinet position in the White House -- pitched Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to local Hispanic movers and shakers.

Cisneros came with a speech that could have been made anywhere, but questions afterward drove home specific issues important to Hispanics in the crowd.

In the Las Vegas Valley, where one of four people is Hispanic, the distinction may have been telling only days before Saturday's statewide Democratic caucus.

Cisneros talked about Kerry and called him "the best person the Democratic Party can offer" at a time when the party's emphasis on education, health care, affordable housing, job training and the environment are vital, he said.

Then the several dozen Hispanic men and women present who have climbed America's ladder -- attorneys, retired federal workers, businessmen, academics -- proceeded to ask about Kerry's position on issues Cisneros didn't mention: Bush's immigration proposal, a bill to help undocumented immigrant high school students go to college and gay marriage, "given Hispanic family values."

Another asked if Cisneros knew anything about "Kerry's team" if elected -- "What's in it for the Latino community?" he said.

That's a key question.

Cisneros' visit highlights a drive by both parties to attract Hispanic voters.

Andres Ramirez, a consultant on Hispanic voter trends based in Las Vegas, said he knows of four voter registration drives that are targeting Nevada Hispanics, and he expects two more to begin come spring.

He noted that in a close election, such as President Bush had in 2000, an influx of new Hispanic voters could make a difference.

"If you look at the fact that Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority and the fastest-growing in voter registration, you have a significant amount of opportunity to register new voters and mobilize a new force," he said.

He estimated Nevada has about 65,000 Hispanics who are eligible to register who have not.

"You figure if you register even half of those, that's an additional 30,000 voters that you're adding to the state," he said. "That can be a significant thing."

Cisneros said Kerry wanted to "treat Latino immigrants with dignity ... and end this business of people living in the shadows."

He said Bush's proposal, which would match workers with employers for three-year visas, "doesn't go far enough." Kerry favors a process of "earned legalization," he said, which means that people who meet certain criteria would become residents and then citizens.

As for helping undocumented high school students -- children of immigrants who have entered the country illegally -- Cisneros said Kerry "gets it" and supports the bill before Congress that would help them enter college.

On gay marriages -- a controversial idea in the Roman Catholic, family-oriented world of Latin America -- Cisneros said Kerry supports the idea of civil unions among partners of the same sex.

Civil unions, he said, are not the same as marriages, but offer same-sex couples and their children some of the same protections as other families, like insurance.

"This is not inconsistent with Latino values," he said. "We're like everybody else -- we have situations in our families, in our neighborhoods."

After the speech, Tony Sanchez, immediate past president of the Latin Chamber -- which has more than 1,000 members, one of the largest such organizations in the country -- said he supported Kerry for his stand on the issues. The chamber began endorsing candidates in local campaigns in the past year but does not endorse presidential candidates, Sanchez said.

As for why he was behind Kerry, he said, "I'm tired of people asking, 'What does the Latino community care about?' We care about the same things as anybody else -- and Kerry's strong on those issues."

Later he said that Latinos may have what he called "a heightened awareness" about education, employment and immigration.

Toward the end of his speech, Cisneros said "Nevada can be Democratic ... because of the influx of Latino voters."

Though the audience may have thought he was referring to the historical tendency of Latinos to register as Democrats by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, he later said that it was "more about the issues.

"Latinos see the government not as a crutch ... but to put the conditions that allow us to get ahead, like schools and job training," he said.