Bill Richardson in Newsweek
Carl Sullivan of Newsweek talks to Governor Richardson about some of my favorite topics, like the 2008 presidential election, U.S. relations with Latin America, the lack of an articulated Democratic national agenda and, of course, the Latino vote. Oh, wait, Richardson is from New Mexico, so he calls it the Hispanic vote:
And while the Democrats dominate the Hispanic registration, it’s not a monolithic vote. And the fact that the Hispanic community is growing throughout America, not just in the Southwest, but in states like North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas, in dramatic proportions is very healthy. It shows a Hispanic community that is voting more than in the past. It still needs more voter and civic participation in the American mainstream and both parties are scrambling for that vote. The Democrats need to talk to Hispanics not just about issues like immigration and civil rights, but also issues like entrepreneurship and home ownership and small-business development and education.
Hispanic Tips - a great site at which to get an RSS feed on the latest with Latinos - links to a Reuters story about Richardson.
“The erosion of the Hispanic vote with the Democratic Party has been consistent in the last three elections,” Richardson said, and in the last one it may have been fatal.
“The Hispanic vote would have been important in states like Nevada and Arizona and New Mexico,” he said. “If John Kerry had carried those states, he would have been president.”
Richardson said he was on a personal campaign to make those states “more than just flyovers” for political campaigners, and he wants more substantive Democratic efforts to woo Hispanics.
Hispanics are the largest U.S. racial or ethnic minority, accounting for about 14 percent of the population. They are expected to account for 24 percent of the total U.S. population in 2050.
“Democrats can’t take this vote for granted,” Richardson said. The party needs to talk “not just about civil rights” but about “a broad range of issues like jobs, small business and entrepreneurship.”
“They can’t just focus on a few narrow issues and trot out the mariachi bands, like both parties have traditionally done,” he said.
