Michael Blood of the Associated Press reports on Republican hopes for Latino voters in 2008 even despite the Republican Party’s spectacular mishandling of the immigration issue. I’m quoted in the article:

Democratic pollster Andre Pineda, who is advising New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign, conducted research after the November 2006 elections that identified a generational shift in Hispanic voter patterns.

“We need to … make our case on those issues, otherwise we are going to lose them,” Pineda said.

Many Democrats think of Latinos as base voters. I think that’s too simplistic. Especially in California, Latino voters who have come to the country recently are base voters - ripe for turnout efforts. But Latino voters who have been here for many generations are swing voters and therefore key targets for persuasion.

My poll of Latinos voters in California that was quoted by Blood suggests that Democrats need to do a much better job of holding on to Latinos through the generations. Democrats who get all excited about Democratic performance with Latino voters in 2006 or recent national poll numbers regarding party ID are missing a key point:

Nobody thinks the Republicans are going to win a majority of Latino voters in 2008. But if Republicans carve out enough Latino votes, they can win states like Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. Those states may very well decide the presidency.

Seems like just yesterday I was making my way from Westwood to Berkeley to visit my dear friend Susan Antón and attend the UCLA-Cal football game. But that was actually 1982. Karl Dorrell was a freshman wide receiver for the Bruins, not the head coach. And Susan is today thinking about weightier matters as reported here by Reuters:

An ancient skull and upper jawbone from two early branches of the human family tree - Homo erectus and Homo habilis - suggest the early human ancestors may have lived close together for half a million years, researchers say.

The research, published in the journal Nature, was conducted by nine scientists including Professor Anton, paleontologist Meave Leakey and her daughter Louise Leakey, both explorers in residence at the National Geographic Society and Professor Fred Spoor of University College London.

Guillermo Martínez opines in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the impact of the Cuban vote in the 2008 election. In the process, he makes the point that the Hispanic vote in Florida is far from monolithic:

They are more interested in what to do about Iraq, in the state of the economy, in universal health care, in education, and even the non-Puerto Ricans, in immigration. Cuba, however, is not the hot-button issue. They may even have strong opinions on the subject, but it is not the topic that will take them to the ballot box to vote for a particular candidate.

Norimitsu Onishi of the New York Times reports on elections for upper house in Japan going strongly against the party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe, apparently, hadn’t been in tune with what voters wanted and got the message too late:

The loss, however, will allow the opposition to check Mr. Abe’s legislative agenda. Using parliamentary majorities he had inherited from his popular predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, Mr. Abe rammed through laws to instill patriotism in schools, elevate the status of Japan’s military and prepare for a referendum on revising the pacifist Constitution.

During the 17-day campaign, Mr. Abe switched gears and focused on economic issues. Mr. Abe took out full-page ads in Sunday’s newspapers, pledging to turn voters’ “anger and anxieties” into “peace of mind and hope.” But the change in strategy was too late, particularly because the opposition leader, Ichiro Ozawa, had centered his campaign on the economy.

Kos blogged today on Rick Noriega:

The Texas netroots is launching their effort on behalf of Rick Noriega — an ambitious effort that will be easily the most difficult challenge tackled by the netroots to date. They’re launching with an effort to garner 800 contributors to their ActBlue page for Noriega. I’m in.

Rick Noriega promises to be an exciting candidate in a part of the country that hasn’t had many Democrats to cheer for in a long time.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post describes the rise of the Richardson campaign the same way I do whenever asked by friends: “slowly but surely.” Cillizza also assesses the political implications of the Governor’s position on Iraq:

Expect Richardson to attempt to gain more traction in the coming weeks with his plan to remove all American troops from Iraq by the end of this year. That aggressive position is sure to play well with Democratic base both nationally and in Iowa, where anti-war sentiment runs high.

As you watch other presidential candidates finesse their Iraq proposals in an attempt to tap into that growing sentiment, it’s worth remembering that it is not something new for Governor Richardson. Governor Richardson was saying out of Iraq now at the DNC Winter Meeting in February, he was saying it last year and he was saying it while the Senators were voting to fund George W. Bush’s war.

Matt Bai of the New York Times opines on the lack of governing experience held by the candidates currently ahead in the polls:

Of all the campaign themes that will emerge leading up to the 2008 primaries, one you probably won’t hear a lot about is experience. That’s because the candidates who are at the moment best positioned for the nominations of their parties have surprisingly little of it. At a time when the nation looks for a leader to meet profound challenges to its decades-long dominance as an economic and military power, the five candidates who lead in state and national polls — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney — have won a grand total of five statewide elections in their cumulative political careers and have served a combined 20 years in statewide office. (Fred Thompson, who may soon be among the leaders in the Republican field, served eight years in the Senate.) In fact, the executive with the longest tenure in the group is Giuliani, who would be the first mayor in history to ascend to the presidency without holding some higher office first.

Experience is what prepares presidents to stand by their convictions even when experts urge them not to, like Johnson’s signing the Voting Rights Act, or Harry Truman’s integrating the Armed Services. It is also what enables presidents to recognize when compromise — even odious compromise — is the last, best option, as Bill Clinton did on welfare reform. Lacking that kind of expertise, George W. Bush never did seem to master the balance between principle and pragmatism, the veteran politician’s art of when to build bridges and when to burn them. Whoever gets the nominations next year will want to study Bush’s experience closely — if only because they may not be able to count on their own.

Meanwhile, political columnist Lee Bandy of The State writes about Governor Richardson after a recent campaign swing in South Carolina:

Democrats might have the best presidential candidate in New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

“He comes across as being a different Democrat,” observed Dave Woodard, a political scientist at Clemson University and Republican consultant. “He likes capital development and all that stuff. And, let me tell you, he can really galvanize a crowd. I’ve seen it. He is impressive.”

Gene Maddaus of the Daily Breeze reports on the concession by Jenny Oropeza to Laura Richardson in the special election for the 37th congressional district. Turnout was 11 percent.

Whether it is in developing countries or urban America, getting people out of the informal economy and into the formal one is really about helping entrepreneurs help themselves. Instead of charity, the tools that make this happen range from legal reform to microloans to, above all else, education. Laura Novak of the New York Times reports on one example in San Francisco:

Known as a “kitchen incubator,” La Cocina (la-koh-SEE-nuh) is a shared-use space created two years ago to provide a platform for women entrepreneurs without assets. Offering a low hourly rate for access to 2,200 square feet of restaurant-quality kitchen space, the nonprofit La Cocina also provides training from high-profile mentors and technical assistance on creating business plans and building marketing programs.

To avoid that, Jason Rose, La Cocina’s culinary director, and Caleb Zigas, the program director, both of them bilingual, meet weekly with the women to review food costs, recipes and sales and marketing plans. Participants also pair with consultants from partner organizations who work on finances and cash flow statements.

More stories about La Cocina can be found on its website.

I’ve mentioned that I believe David Zahniser is as good as it gets when it comes to political reporting in Los Angeles. Kevin Roderick blogs in LA Observed about Zahniser’s move from a weekly to the LA Times:

Now this should get interesting. LA Weekly political reporter David Zahniser, the hottest property on the City Hall beat, is jumping to the L.A. Times to cover Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. I don’t know what it means for Duke Helfand, who has been on the Antonio beat for the Times, but the hire should mean sharper, deeper and less friendly coverage of the mayor.

John Stodder, who knows a thing or two about falls from grace, blogged persuasively a few days ago on how he felt the LA Times had already turned on Villaraigosa.