As we mentioned in an earlier post, we won’t talk about politics but will cover how parties, candidates and get out to vote efforts are trying to engage and inform Latinos. We’ll call these posts ’Rumbo a las elecciones.’ Here’s the first post for this new series:
I attended an interesting session yesterday regarding using social networking tools in politics, sponsored by the New Politics Institute. I mention this because in the intro, Peter Leyden talked about the new tools needed to succeed in politics and speaking Spanish is one of those tools. This is not surprising but what is, but maybe it should not be, is the level of activity we’ve seen on candidates’ efforts to reach Hispanics and on voter registration efforts.
A few examples:
- Yesterday a coalition ’of the nation’s largest and most established Latino organizations and the country’s largest Spanish-language media companies launched Ya es Hora, ¡Ve y Vota! (It’s Time, Go Vote!), a non-partisan national voter mobilization effort targeting U.S. Hispanics.’ According to the announcement, ’the campaign seeks to significantly increase Latino voter registration and turnout in the 2008 presidential elections through an unprecedented multi-media campaign that encompasses grassroots, print and broadcast outreach. In particular, the campaign will use aggressive non-partisan field efforts to ensure that Latinos are an important vote in the new Southwestern battleground states. The coalition partners include Entravision Communications, ImpreMedia, Mi Familia Vota Educational Fund, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza and Univision Communications Inc.’
- In September Univision hosted a debate with the Democratic candidates and as we mentioned earlier this week, has one planned with Republican candidates on Sunday, December 9th. Univision launched the weekly Sunday morning show, Al Punto with Jorge Ramos.
- On Wednesday a national Hispanic coalition called Viva Rudy, in support of Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy, was launched.
- Vote Hope, a San Francisco-based group has three mini-novelas on YouTube to support Senator Barack Obama. Senator Obama also has a page on MyBatanga.com announced recently.
- Leslie Sanchez has had significant publicity tied to her book, including a mention in a great piece by Ruben Navarrete called “Latino voters pigeonholed by politicians.”
- Yahoo! Telemundo has created a section called Decisión 2008.
- There is Voto Latino, focused on Hispanic youth, and supported by Rosario Dawson and many young Latino Hollywood stars.
As you might recall, earlier this month we had a guest blog from Luis Clemens as he launched La Politica. I strongly recommend this site if you are interested in politics and Hispanics. The site has exceeded my expectations and is my primary source for information on what the candidates are doing to reach this important voting block. One of the best pieces to date is how well candidates are doing on their Hispanic outreach efforts, including how Senator Clinton is ahead on this front. Link here for this piece: http://www.lapolitica.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=13ACB6E9CE744B9AB7FDE6E9E292A534&nm=Newsletter+Articles&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=E38C306C78DA4577ADB870ED38DE52D4.
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