Obama Election Watch

The Democratic Party made an astute choice in picking Denver, Colorado, as the site for this year’s national convention. As political parties generally do, the Democrats picked an area of the country where their fortunes are on the rise and where they see a chance to switch a traditionally Republican state to their column. By holding their convention in Minneapolis, the GOP has a similar goal for Minnesota.

The four-day Denver convention opens next Monday.

Colorado traditionally has been a red state in presidential elections but Democrats have made major inroads in statewide elections in recent years. One reason for the Democrats’ recent success in Colorado is because of a major increase in Hispanic voters in the state. There are now more than 400,000 eligible Hispanic voters in Colorado making up 12 percent of the total voting age population. As many as 150,000 remain unregistered to vote.

Publicity surrounding the upcoming convention offers Obama the opportunity to reach out to Hispanic voters in Colorado. The growing Hispanic population, which is concentrated in the Denver metropolitan area, could provide Obama with enough votes to turn Colorado from red to blue.

While in Denver, Obama’s managers can arrange an interview to the editors of El Semanario or La Voz, two bilingual Latino-owned newspapers in the city. Or Obama could consider an appearance on Spanish-language Radio Tricolor (KXPX-96.5 FM), one of Denver’s most popular radio stations. Later, as Election Day approaches, Obama campaign advertisements need to be placed with these media outlets.