With the presidential election only 117 days away, candidates are vying to win the Hispanic community's vote.
In this year's election, the most important and influential vote is that of the Hispanic community, said Rudy Lopez, national field director for the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute.
"The Latino community is one that penetrates many other organizations," Lopez said. "And it's the reason why the Republicans are courting it, and why the Democrats are apologizing for taking it for granted."
In a statement last year, the U.S. Census Bureau said Hispanics are the nation's largest minority group, with almost 40 million Hispanic U.S. citizens. Between 1996 and 2000, the number of Hispanic voters grew by 1 million.
"With the election coming up, clearly it's about electoral votes, and nobody can dispute that the states with the largest piece of the pie also have the largest Latino population," Lopez said.
In a study released by the Hispanic Business Magazine on Feb. 10, 2004, conducted by HispanTelligence in 2003, the number of Hispanics identifying themselves as Democrats dropped 6.5 percent.
Historically, Hispanics have been a strong Democratic group, said Daron Shaw, a UT government research associate professor. Based on exit polls, he said, about 60 percent to 65 percent of Hispanics self-identify as Democrats. During the actual vote, the numbers are higher. ranging from 70 percent to 75 percent, he added.
"What's happened in the past two-to-three election cycles is that the Republicans noticed that they can't win without the Hispanic vote," Shaw said. "So the Republicans have decided to reach out, especially Bush, who has been energetic about it."
However, in a different study conducted by the Pew Hispanic/Kaiser Foundation in April 2002, data indicates that nearly 50 percent of Hispanics are Democrats. The survey said that "among registered Latino voters, 45 percent say the Democratic Party is more concerned with Latinos than the Republican party, but ... 40 percent feel there is no difference between the major political parties."
"While 60 percent of Latinos are Democrats, most Latinos are willing to cross party lines in order to find a candidate to support their views," said Mary Gonzalez, co-director for the UT Latino Leadership Council. "In key states, if the Latino vote can be swayed just a little bit, then the state's outcome could be changed."
Texas Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, state chair of the Tejanos Democrats, said he believes this year's election will not see an increase in the Hispanic vote for the Bush-Cheney ticket.
"Hispanics are still a very close -knit community, still tied to their immigration roots, at least for the past three generations, and the policies for the Bush-Cheney administration have been in direct conflict to the needs of the Latino family," Pena said.
However, he said, in the long run, as economic and educational standards rise, so will the diversity in opinions. Pena added that it boils down to the "matching of the bread-and-butter needs of Hispanic community."
The issue of a shift in political party affiliation within the Latino community is very controversial, said Shaw. However, he said, there is no evidence of an actual trend emerging.
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