Advertisements in Spanish have become the latest front in the war for the White House between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, who have redoubled their efforts this week to bring in the crucial Hispanic vote.
“My roommate while I was in the Naval Academy wanted to be president,” indicates McCain’s latest radio advertisement in which Frank Gamboa, the senator’s ex-roommate, admires McCain’s long compromise to Latinos.
On the contrary, “the other candidate,” as Gamboa describes Obama, “just discovered the importance of the Latino vote.” These statements have set the Illinois Senator’s campaign at a warring pace, and caused his launch of a series of electoral advertisements for Hispanics.
“We are foreseeing an aggressive advertisement campaign before the democratic convention,” which will be celebrated in Denver, Colorado in August, said James Aldrete, who designs advertisements geared towards Latinos for Obama.
The unstoppable offensive, as Lionel Sosa, an assessor for McCain’s Hispanic market explains, “demonstrates the importance of the Latino vote in these elections.”
Latinos represent about 9% of the U.S. electorate, according to the Census Bureau, a statement which is reinforced by its concentration in those states foreseen as key in the next general elections of November 4th.
Thereby, 65% of Latino voters live in California, Texas, New York and Florida. Of these, 48% live in California and Texas. Their presence is also notorious in other states such as New Mexico, which has about 500,000 registered Latino voters, who make up about 38% of all voters.
In Texas they are about 25% of the electorate, in California they are 23%, in Arizona they are 17%, and in Florida they are 14%. In addition, they are a powerful political force in Colorado, New York and Illinois. President George W. Bush was able to defeat his democratic rival John Kerry in 2004 in states like New Mexico, thanks to the backing he received from Latino voters.
Sosa, McCain’s assessor, stated that advertisements from here to November will focus on the importance of education, conservative values such as the traditional family, and immigration reform.
The senator from Arizona will also appeal to Hispanic patriotism as he did on Memorial Day, in the month of May. ”The next time you go to Washington, I want you to look upon the wall of the commemorative Vietnam War memorial, and see the names engraved in granite,” said McCain in one of his advertisements subtitled in Spanish, and he added, “you will see a bunch of Hispanic names.”
Obama’s advertisements, which also back a way to offer citizenship for the near 12 million undocumented, look to acquaint Latinos with the African American senator.
His assessors assure that with the catch phrase “Yes, we can,” the senator will direct himself at Latinos as he did during the primary elections in Puerto Rico.
“Our intent is to raise awareness of his career and the people who supported it as well as important issues for the Hispanic community that Obama
seek to boost,” explained Aldrete.
The balance, for the moment, according to the latest poles, seems to sway in the direction of Obama, who for now appears as the favorite among Hispanics. And a survey drawn up by the Gallup firm on July 2nd shows Obama defeating McCain by a margin of 59% to 29%.
Adam Segal, director of the Hispanic voter project at Johns Hopkins University (Washington), told Efe that the advantage could be decisive if the battle between McCain and Obama is rendered as the polls show.
The expert insisted on the importance of the internet as well as other technologies in reaching Hispanics, and recalled that the “With Obama, we can,” advertisement, in which a number of Hispanic artists participated, like Paulina Rubio and Alejandro Sanz, has been viewed more than 250,000 times on the net.
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