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COVER STORY
Message Man
Senator Mel Martinez is helping the GOP woo Hispanic voters
A game of risk
 The president's man: President Bush first called Martinez into service in 2001 to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. [Photo: Kevin Lamarque / Reuters] |
Martinez deflects the criticism. "Actually, among my colleagues I think there's been a lot of mutual understanding and respect on my position. It's a difficult issue. People might differ on the best way to approach it."
Martinez's biggest hurdle is probably Democrats, who are also engaged in their own push for Hispanic support. Democratic strategists believe they can capitalize on the current shift in the same way California Democrats did after then-Republican Gov. Pete Wilson backed a ballot initiative in the mid-1990s that would have denied undocumented immigrants and their children public benefits, including a public education.
"Wilson's stance galvanized California's Latino population and made California irrevocably a blue state," Simon Rosenberg, a former Clinton strategist who runs the New Democrat Network, said during a post-election forum on Hispanic voters last fall. "If the same thing were to happen in the states with large Latino populations, we could turn the four Southwestern states, Texas and Florida into blue states."
In addition, in at least the short term, the war in Iraq may be a bigger issue for Hispanics than immigration. Democrat pollster Sergio Bendixen of Miami calls the war a "crucial issue" for Hispanic voters -- along with others like education and healthcare. And Martinez is on the unpopular side of that issue, backing the president's plan for a "surge" in troops. Martinez told reporters during a March visit to the James A. Haley Veteran's Hospital in Tampa that a rapid withdrawal would be "disastrous."
Latino leaders, while excited about Martinez's selection to the RNC, are taking a wait-and-see approach. "For us, it's not about popularity; it's about leadership and whether the Republican Party will make the investment to actually talk to Latinos. To get votes or not, that will depend upon what their program looks like -- the outreach and the dialogue that goes on," says Efrain Escobedo, director of voter engagement for the National Association for Latino Elected Officials.
| » No. 1 IssueSurvey data show a link between Latino voting patterns and the anti-immigrant rhetoric in the 109th Congress: 8% of Latino voters said immigration policy is the No. 1 issue that decided their vote for Congress or for Senate, according to the non-profit, Latino-oriented research think tank William C. Velasquez Institute. Democratic pollster Celinda Lake's research, meanwhile, indicated that 30% of Latino voters either marched in immigration protests in 2006 or knew someone who did. |
Legislative issues aside, Washington insiders say that Democrats are delighted in Martinez's selection as RNC chairman because they think they can use the "culture of corruption" theme for another two years. The party already is hammering Martinez over his ties to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff and imprisoned Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who were caught up in trading political favors for fancy trips and lavish gifts. Ney admitted in his 2006 guilty plea that he arranged a meeting with Martinez, then-HUD secretary, in January 2003 to "(advance) the interests of Abramoff's Native American Tribal clients." The Miami Herald reported that one of Abramoff's clients, the Saginaw Chippewas, received $4 million from HUD between 2000 and 2004. The paper also reported that while Martinez has since returned a $2,500 campaign contribution from Ney, he has kept the $250,000 in donations that flowed from a 2004 fund-raiser co-hosted by Abramoff.
