Print
E-mail
Share
digg
Newsvine
Facebook
Stumble
Technorati
reddit
Fark
twitterHispanics the focus of early push to register
Nevada hand-picked for initiative because of demographic’s clout
Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- Suit raises illegal immigration rights issue (8-31-2009)
- Fired workers' claims typical of nonnatives who mull union bids (8-20-2009)
- Polls show big Hispanic voter turnout (11-10-2008)
- The parallel presidential campaign in Spanish (10-31-2008)
- Local Hispanic papers agree: Obama's the one (10-24-2008)
- Hispanics prefer personal touch (8-12-2008)
- In naming spokeswoman, Democrats invest in Hispanic vote (8-6-2008)
Beyond the Sun
- The Hispanic Institute
- Los Angeles Times: Democrats go deep to court Latino vote (1-17-2008)
When political veteran Gus West spoke with Andres Ramirez in the nation’s capital this year about staging a Hispanic voter registration project somewhere in the United States, Ramirez immediately suggested Nevada.
The onetime North Las Vegas mayoral candidate’s recommendation was not driven by an allegiance to his home state. It was, rather, a perfect fit because of the increasing attention Nevada’s growing Hispanic electorate had drawn on the national stage. The Hispanic factor was, after all, one of the reasons the Democratic Party chose Nevada for an early caucus in last year’s presidential race. The marked increase in Hispanic turnout throughout the previous decade had also been noticed. It was a foundation worth building on, West and Ramirez agreed.
On Saturday, West, board chairman of The Hispanic Institute, based in Washington, is to announce the voter registration project’s launch, together with a group that includes Cuauhtemoc “Temo” Figueroa, most recently the national Latino vote director for the Obama campaign.
Figueroa estimates the project will cost at least $1 million and create as many as 50 jobs statewide. It is yet another sign that “the Hispanic community is becoming an integral part of winning states” in presidential elections and that Nevada, in particular, “has so much at stake,” he says.
In 2008 Nevada was “one of three competitive states (along with New Mexico and Colorado), with the largest percentage increase of Hispanic voters” over the previous election cycle, going from 10 percent to 15 percent of the total turnout, according to the institute. And Ramirez, who is vice president of Hispanic programs for NDN, a Washington think tank, points to Census Bureau estimates that nearly 100,000 Hispanics statewide are eligible to vote but remain unregistered.
Figueroa says that starting the project now makes it easier for outside observers to judge its success because there’s nobody else working on the issue right now, so tracking upticks in Hispanic registration will be easier. He adds that organizers will be visiting neighborhoods in the Las Vegas Valley as well as Northern Nevada to encourage not just voter registration but also civic participation in general. The organizers will visit voters who tend to turn out only for presidential elections and inform them about the importance of upcoming local and state races. They will also tell people about public events and programs in their communities.
Those 100,000 potential voters have an additional strategic importance because after next year’s decennial census, an inevitable result will be redistricting, the creation of new congressional districts. The Legislature decides on redistricting, so next year’s local races for statewide offices hold added importance.
And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is up for reelection next year, and there’s a statewide race for governor.
So starting now on registering and building interest among Hispanics has “so many advantageous factors,” says Ramirez, who will also be working with the project.
Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, D-Las Vegas, benefitted from a previous round of redistricting, in 2006 becoming only the state’s third Hispanic legislator. His victory owed much to old-fashioned shoe leather and door-knocking, not to mention 2,000 handwritten thank you notes. He says getting Hispanics registered and to the polls “takes extra effort” because many are first-time voters, and the community itself is new, having more than quadrupled in the past two decades.
Figueroa allows that extra obstacles include the economic crisis, which has hit Hispanics particularly hard, with a 16.4 percent unemployment rate, according to one group’s recent estimate. “People won’t be thinking much about electoral politics,” he says.
But he hopes to get Hispanics to realize that, “if we don’t participate, we’ll be ignored.”
Discussion: 24 comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy.
Post a comment
Spotlight
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas to close in May
- Pricey land buy on Strip a bit of a surprise
- Engineering marvel taking shape near Hoover Dam
- Harry Reid’s co-writer unloads while discussing polls, Obama quote
- Grim numbers show Nevada leads nation in suicides over 60
- Police: Legal runner returned to home, shot husband and wife
- UNLV back in the polls: No. 23 in AP, No. 25 in ESPN/USA Today
- MGM Mirage to leave N.J. in dispute over Macau partner
- The 10 best steakhouses in Las Vegas
- GOP should blame itself for deficit, not Democrats
Blogs
Shark Bytes
Willis reminds me of another great UNLV guard (1 Comment)
Elsewhere
With aggressive push, Internet gambling again in play
The Kats Report
A very quick list of which females could replace Steven Tyler in Aerosmith (10 Comments)
A 3.5-day sprint, highlighted superflously at Flamingo with Las Vegas newcomers
Politics: Ralston's Flash
Horsford: No taxes now, but tax reform later (14 Comments)
Gibbons: Cutting the budget can help me raise money (11 Comments)
Gibbons: Lawmakers made State of State worse with taxes (5 Comments)
Calendar »
- 9 Tue
- 10 Wed
- 11 Thu
- 12 Fri
- 13 Sat
-
Far East Movement at Blush
Blush Boutique Nightclub | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Benji Madden at Moon
Moon Nightclub | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Hugh Fink at the Riviera Comedy Club
The Riviera Comedy Club
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Let ACORN do it.
How many of those 100,000 potential voters do you think will be found to be illegal I would say at least 90% of them: And all of them will end up a register Democrat!
Let them first register at the border before they register to vote! Deport all ILLEGALS!!
hey hispanics...
remember this my friends...
the retarded republicans are...
well...
retarded!!!
@ LasVegas2009 & Powerplay,
Please be quite about your negative comments. I am a businessman and the undocumented help my bottom line. Unles you are willing to take the economic risk for business people shut up. As a republican I do not favor immigration reform. Just leave things the way they are. Don't make any waves!!!!!! Just be quite about your position on the undocumented.
JSilver
Have ICE at all the voting staions....that'll keep em out!
If the Black Panthers can stand outside polling places with clubs then maybe we should stand outside polling place with ICE shirts at the next election. Just the big ICE letters should cut the democrats turnout by 20%
comment removed by schtaff
Nevada should be proud to be the nations numero uno
safe haven destination for illegals. Need more english as second language schools. Las Vegas, where babies and jobs are born.
How fitting!
"Census Bureau estimates that nearly 100,000 Hispanics statewide are eligible to vote but remain unregistered" -- I'm assuming eligible=legal, in which case by all means register. It's their right under the Constitution. It'd be nice if they studied the issues and made an informed decision when they voted, but hey, how many native born Americans do that? (From what I've seen, immigrants take their responsibilities as a citizen more seriously than many native born do.)
You have to be a US citizen to vote. Your racists comments are out of line.
Oh!, The Decorates are lining up their ducks early, I wonder what`s up?
I guess you will not post my comment because it had the word Democrat in it
Got it, if you're Hispanic, then Republicans-at-large think you're an illegal alien. Way to stereotype, guys!
When I read these comments it is unfortunate that racism continues. How sad. I encourage everyone to vote. Yes it should only be American citizens who have earned that right. Lets get more people to the voting polls and that is the place to address your concerns and elect those who will work for you. Unfortunately many who make the most noise have the most excuses as to why they didn't vote. Of course that is my opinion and I could be wrong.
As usual when the topic of illegals comes up, some genius calls those against illegals racist. You geniuses either need to get a clue or your part of the problem of exploiting illegals for your own profit.
If there were a genuine effort, to reach out and inform Hispanic citizens, about the necessity of being counted, via the census, many undocumented (unregistered) Hispanics would be identified as truly legal citizens. The Hispanic segment of American society, by and large, has gone unaccounted properly, giving way to some folks'/ politicians desire of disenfranchising this group, by way of limiting governmental funds to their communities, for schools, parks, and all governmental services; the census data is used to distribute Congressional seats to states too.
"Don't awake the Giant", it will be very disconcerting for most of the politically vocal American society once these real numbers are made known, demonstrating the past misappropriation of monies to that segment of America's communities. By law $400 billion in federal funds to local, state and tribal governments each year are required to be distributed equally, to all segments of the community, in the big picture, that would mean less for the "status quo".
Moreover, the de-facto, two party, political American government, which has operated unchallenged for centuries, could possibly be debunked by an emerging new invigorated Hispanic political party, unlike any past political party known in America.
To be sure, this new dimension of the political playing field will make people rethink the affirmative action policy, that policy their fathers once called for an abolishment to. There will be new found struggling for those past entitled groups to find a place at the government troth, which, their fathers gorged endlessly.
It's a good thing animals can't vote, You wouldn't be able to keep the dems out of your back yard.
I have no problem with illegal aliens voting. Look at the wunnerful job they've done in Mexico.
Bigotry and Racism are not illegal. It is merely freedom of speech. If you want to hear racism effectively used, listen to Charles Rangel the Democratic Congressman from New York. He said we white people resent having a black president. I guess he thinks only the black folks elected Obama. How can 13 per cent of the country elect anybody?
Should this be a surprise to anybody?
Yes we already know there a bunch of morons out there that aren't registered to vote.
There all hiding over at El Lobo's house.
Did rangel (the commitee leader) ever figure out through the commitee if he was obligated to pay taxes yet? How the scumbag remains in office is astonishing! Then again he fits right in with the obama administration perfectly.