Reaching out to minorities

By Timothy Pratt

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

As he was leaving an event where Dina Titus had offered her platform to black community leaders, Cordell Stokes said he heard a few stray comments on the sound of Georgia in the candidate for governor's voice.

"I heard people say they like the accent - like, 'We have one of our own,' " says Stokes, who is a member of the Caucus of African American Nevadans and a Titus campaign consultant. Many older members of the valley's black community have roots in the South, he said.

Adriana Martinez, in charge of Hispanic outreach for Titus, says she thinks the unmistakable twang makes some Spanish-speaking voters feel closer to the candidate.

"They can identify with someone who has an accent," she says, perhaps hopefully.

Those observations, although offered with a bit of humor, may have some importance, or at least, symbolism, as Titus ramps up her bid to become Nevada's first female governor and one of the most liberal Democrats ever to hold the state's highest elected office.

In a state that has voted Republican or middle-of-the-road Democrat in recent history, Titus may see her chances boosted by Clark County's blacks and Hispanics, who make up more than one-third of the Las Vegas Valley's residents. That vote is particularly valuable when weighed against the support Northern Nevada and rural voters have shown for opponent Jim Gibbons.

But minority voter turnout is always an issue, Martinez said, particularly with Hispanics.

Although Clark County has yet to make precinct-by-precinct results available, Election Department representative Elsa Garcia said the early voter tally of 81,489 for the primaries included 6,421 Spanish-surnamed voters. That's only 7.8 percent.

According to recent election department numbers, there are 621,221 Clark County registered voters, and an estimated 86,963 - or just under 14 percent - have Spanish surnames.

People inside and outside Titus' campaign point to several factors that could favor Titus as she tries to get more minority voters to the polls.

Those who have known the political science professor and Nevada Senate minority leader for some time said that she has acquired a reputation for encouraging minorities to enter politics as candidates, even serving as a mentor of sorts.

They hope it pays off in multiplied support for her campaign this fall. Then there's her voting record in areas of importance to minority Democrats: education, health care and community-police relations. And the fact that Gibbons has garnered low grades for his votes on such issues in Congress.

Still, the most visible local groups in minority politics - the Caucus of African American Nevadans; Impacto, the political arm of the Latin Chamber of Commerce; and Hispanics in Politics - have yet to commit their support to Titus or Gibbons.

The caucus and Impacto are organizing a forum for both candidates next month, but a date has not yet been selected.

Xavier Rivas, a member of Hispanics in Politics, says his group wants to "meet with both of them and see what they have to offer" the Hispanic community.

"We want to go beyond the party and the person to see who brings real stuff to the Hispanic community," said Rivas, who also hosts a talk show on Spanish-language radio KRLV 1340-AM.

Tony Sanchez, immediate past president of the Latin Chamber, notes that the group's membership reflects a reality some may overlook: Not all Hispanics are alike, and they don't vote alike.

Older members from Cuba tend to favor Republican candidates, while younger ones from Mexico or with Mexican roots often vote Democratic. In recent years, that split has become more of an issue as the organization, with nearly 1,300 members, has begun endorsing candidates.

Still, Andres Ramirez, a political consultant who lost in his 2004 bid to become the first Hispanic mayor of North Las Vegas, said he thinks Titus' relationship to Hispanics and blacks who have entered politics in recent years will help her in the coming months.

Ramirez counts himself in that group, recalling a letter Titus sent him in the mid-1990s when he was a Valley High School student, saying she was "committed to me doing well."

Ramirez had organized a forum for elected officials to speak to his fellow students and then counted on Titus' financial support for a summer course at Georgetown University.

He rattled off a list of a half-dozen others from the black and Hispanic communities whom Titus encouraged from a young age.

"She doesn't necessarily brag about these things, but does the work," Ramirez said.

"For a lot of minorities I know, she's made a big impact."

Another of those is Martinez. Titus' campaign had to wait until Martinez stepped down in July as chairwoman of the state Democratic Party to work as Hispanic outreach coordinator. Martinez notes that Titus got her started on the road that led her to head the party.

After the 2000 Census showed how large the state's Hispanic population had become - 19.7 percent at the time - Titus told her the "Hispanic community is not going to go away and she would like to see more Hispanics in office."

Titus encouraged Martinez to run for the newly created District 12 Senate seat in 2002, a race which Martinez lost. But the experience proved "a steppingstone" for her, she says.

Now, Martinez points to the 6 percent rating that the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda Congressional Scorecard gave to Gibbons, and compares that to Titus' record dealing with minority issues such as racial profiling, high school dropout rates and immunizations for the poor.

Titus' consultant Stokes said this will be remembered come November: "If you have no substantive track record supporting minority issues, it's going to be very difficult to get the minority vote."

Gibbons campaign manager Robert Uithoven said his campaign will be "going after every voting bloc. We're not going to turn our attention off any voting bloc that's interested in the governor's race."

He also noted that while his campaign has outreach groups for blacks and Hispanics, "I understand that Republicans tend to have difficulty in statewide races (with the minority vote), particularly with the African-American vote."

Still, he said, "there's a lot more listening than talking at this stage of the campaign."

Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, and a Titus supporter, said the Democratic National Committee's recent decision to make Nevada an early caucus state in 2008 will bring national minority leaders such as Jesse Jackson and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to town this year - and they will support Titus.

"Having a Democratic woman as governor going into 2008 will be important" to them, Horsford said.

As for the nuts-and-bolts steps the Titus campaign will be facing , Martinez said she is trying to woo Hispanic supporters of Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson, who lost to Titus in the Democratic primary.

Sanchez said both candidates will need grass-roots messages to convince the minority voter.

"No matter how good your record is they need to literally get people out and vote."