That’s one piece of the Florida GOP primary puzzle, as the Washington Post reports today:
The Republican presidential race turned into a pitched battle for Hispanic voters on Wednesday, with Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney hurling insults over immigration policy as each looked for ways to court a critical constituency…
Gingrich lobbed the first attack on Wednesday, poking fun at Romney during an appearance on Miami-based Univision, the country’s biggest Spanish-language network. Gingrich peppered his remarks with halting Spanish as he accused Romney of living in a “fantasy land” for suggesting in a debate that the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants should “self deport.”
Romney also stepped up his attacks on Gingrich, releasing a Spanish-language ad noting that the former House speaker once called Spanish the “language of the ghetto.”
…Gingrich, for his part, has said he used inartful language in the 2007 speech in which he referred to Spanish as the language of “living in a ghetto.”
So, uh, no, neither of these gentlemen have done much to ingratiate themselves with the fastest-growing bloc of voters in the United States–kind of the opposite. Florida will be the first Republican presidential primary this year in a state with a large Hispanic population. But the broader (spelled general election) importance of this community isn’t going to be seen in a Republican primary, of course. And even though polls don’t show particular enthusiasm for Democrats among all Hispanic voters, faceplants from either of these GOP candidates over the years on immigration should be enough to, as Darth Vader eloquently put it, “motivate them.”
And remember, folks, they have to sell themselves to the same Republicans who voted Tom Tancredo for governor of Colorado in 2010 as soon as they’re done in Florida! We get the feeling that may not go well either, and also hurt most well after these primaries are over.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
BY: dorothy martin
IN: It’s Boebert vs. Buck On “Gym” Jordan, Like It Or Not
BY: NotHopeful
IN: Initiatives 50 and 108 Falling Apart Amid Basic Scrutiny
BY: dawn flowers
IN: Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann Vaguely Afraid of Some Guy
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Thursday Open Thread
BY: Tony Daly
IN: Colorado Republicans Cruised Past Parody and Kept Right on Going
BY: JohnInDenver
IN: Dave Williams’ Foes Head Back To Court As “Calvinball” Drama Continues
BY: spaceman2021
IN: Colorado Republicans Cruised Past Parody and Kept Right on Going
BY: spaceman2021
IN: Child Actor Ricky Schroder Crashes Tina Peters Trial
BY: davebarnes
IN: Thursday Open Thread
BY: davebarnes
IN: Colorado Republicans Cruised Past Parody and Kept Right on Going
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!
The grumpy old white base demands the most hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric imaginable but then there’s Florida specifically and the growing percentage of Latino voters in general. Also states in the west that have large numbers of Latino voters and large numbers of grumpy old white Rs. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Glad I’m not a GOTP presidential hopeful!
if it ever got to the presidents desk. That’s going to be a hard one to walk back in the general and pretend that he is a friend of Hispanics.
http://www.denverpost.com/brea…
I won’t copy and paste from them, but you should read this story.
they aren’t just figurines or anything ? Wow
Is that these are actual members of that community, not anonymous blog authors who constantly tell us what this community thinks.
What a racist thing to say.
But they are Hispanics, and they are state representatives.
That makes their words less trustworthy.
Well that settles it!
for small minds . . . probably why MittBOT was so impressed by Gessler’s SIX John Smith’s.
May also have something to do with his inability to grasp numbers larger than the number of his digits?
Two is teh awesome . . .
because he told our friend Jason Salzman
I guess it’s only when it’s politically convenient for him that all of a sudden he wants to identify as a Hispanic.
Without directly quoting your article, apparently the two of them refused to take questions from the media during their news conference, which surprised the reporters AND their fellow GOP members. But, anyone who’s been to a town hall for Ramirez and Szabo know EXACTLY why they didn’t take questions.
What’s your point?
how many people will see a relatively high turnout from the Florida’s republican-leaning Cuban population as a rise in support from Latinos in general.
Could be an interesting time watching campaigns both claim Latino support and try to manage expectations as the primaries move west… all while trying to avoid offending the hardcore xenophobes.
The older generation’s primary interest is in punishing Castro’s Cuba, not in immigration policy. Many Cubans of that generation support Republicans for their tough talk, and that often includes immigration policy. Of course, most Americans probably don’t know that…
But Cubans only represent 10% of the Republican primary base; while it’s an important segment of the population, unless one candidate really screws it up or hits a home run, it’s not going to be the deciding factor in the Florida primary. And the candidates know that; they won’t spend too much time courting the vote. We’ll be back to Newt the bombthrower vs. Mitt the elitist negative campaigning – oh, wait, we already are…