Without doubt, Nevada is a swing state in this presidential election. Different polls in recent weeks have shown both candidates with a razor-thin, one- or two-point lead.
In Nevada two thirds of the total statewide vote is cast in Clark County, in the extreme southern part of the state. Clark County includes the city of Las Vegas. It is the only county in the entire state that John Kerry won in 2004.
Since 2004 Democratic voter registrations in Clark County are up by 63,000 while GOP registrations have grown by 38,000. Many of the new voters are Latinos. County statistics show that 70 percent of the voters who register using Spanish-language forms register as Democrats and only 18 percent register as Republicans. (Click Here to Read More)
In 2004 President Bush carried the state of New Mexico by a mere 6,000 votes. Nearly 800,000 votes were cast. Four years earlier in 2000, Al Gore won New Mexico by a razor-thin margin of only 366 votes. Polls in New Mexico show that once again the race is tight. This year New Mexico’s five electoral votes could decide the nationwide presidential election.
The key to Obama’s winning the state of New Mexico lies in increasing voter turnout among Latinos. There are 450,000 eligible Hispanic-American voters in New Mexico. They make up about one third of the total electorate in the state. In 2004 the number of Hispanics who chose not to vote was at least 20 times Bush’s margin of victory in the state. (Click Here to Read More)
Since 1976, the U.S. government has provided billions of dollars each year to help low-income youngsters pay for college. But over a long career John McCain has cast at least 26 Senate votes that would weaken or undermine access to the Pell Grant program.
Today there are 2 million Hispanic youngsters in college and 15 million Hispanic children who have not reached college age. If elected president, John McCain’s opposition to the Pell Grant program would severely blight the higher education prospects of the children of 20 million Hispanic adults in the United States.
This fall, Hispanic parents and other Latino voters should use their immense numbers to deny the presidency to McCain.
A dedicated and well-organized voting bloc of 20 million Hispanic-American citizens, all fully informed of the severe burdens John McCain’s pernicious policies are inflicting on millions of their children and grandchildren, could end the contest and finally deliver the White House to Barack Obama. (Click Here to Read More)
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. (Click Here to Read More)
The Obama campaign is now in a position to show 27 million Hispanic voters how McCain’s new decision to support a ban on affirmative action could severely damage the college opportunities of hundreds of thousands of college-bound Hispanic youth.
Ten years ago John McCain opposed a bill in the Arizona legislature that would have banned affirmative action for Hispanics in college admissions. No surprise there. He is a senator from a state where 25 percent of the voters are Hispanic.
Over the past 30 years affirmative action rules have been the principal instrument for helping young Hispanics gain access to good opportunities in higher education. This has been public policy for the most part because, due to the language and cultural barriers, the average score of Hispanics on standardized college admissions tests tend to be at least 10 percent below the average score for non-Hispanic whites.
Today there are 1.8 million Hispanic Americans in colleges and universities in the United States. Large numbers of them would not be there but for the benefits of affirmative action. Also, as a result of affirmative action policies, there are tens of thousands of Hispanic Americans today in our most selective colleges and universities. Again, without affirmative action, very few of these Hispanic students would have been admitted.
Senator McCain has always presented himself as a man of principle, rather than of expediency. Now, apparently for political reasons, McCain has changed his mind on affirmative action. McCain announced that he supports the new so-called Arizona Civil Rights Initiative that would ban the use of race as a positive factor in admissions to public institutions of higher education. The initiative has since been pulled off the ballot in Arizona because many of the nominating signatures submitted by the initiative’s supportered were deemed invalid. (Click Here to Read More)
