Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez (D-N. Mex) discusses the upcoming election and issues relating to American Hispanics. Chavez discusses the likelihood of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will win Illinois in the November Presidential Election and what areas Obama needs to focus on. Chavez also discusses the problem of illegal immigration and possible solutions.
Mark Lopez of the Pew Hispanic Center says family issues like education, the cost of living, jobs, and health care are most important to Latino voters in November. Lopez also notes crime, immigration, and Iraq as important issues. (0:28)
The Pew Hispanic Center released the results of a survey on Hispanic voting trends in the presidential election during a conference call. Susan Minushkin said Hispanics surveyed lean towards Sen. Obama by a 3 to 1 margin. According to Minushkin, Hispanic Catholics, 56 percent of Latino voters, favor Obama while Sen. McCain enjoys higher support among non-Catholic Hispanics. Minushkin said 32 percent of voters said Obama’s race would help him, contrasted with 11 percent who said it would hurt him. At the same time, 24 percent of respondents said McCain’s race would hurt him while 7 percent said it would not. Minushkin also said 76 percent of respondents who voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary elections, a candidate who enjoyed large support in the Latino community, have shifted their allegiance to Obama. She contrasted this with white Clinton supporters, saying only 70 percent have expressed support of the Obama campaign.
Mark Lopez said 55 percent of the registered voters surveyed leaned Democrat and 26 percent leaned towards the GOP. Lopez stated that the Hispanic vote is crucial on a national stage due to large Hispanic populations in key battleground states like Florida, Colorado, and New Mexico. According to Lopez, the most important issues found among Hispanics in the study were education, the cost of living, employment, and health care.
Organization of American States Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza comments on Congress refusing to vote on the Columbian Free Trade Agreement. Insulza says, “I think it’s very import not only for Columbia but the whole Latin America, for the whole U.S. Latin American relations.” Insulza was on hand for the second annual Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute conference in Washington, D.C. (0:30)
Robert Gibbs, the Communications Director of the Obama Campaign, held a conference call to discuss and highlight Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) supposed “week of pandering.” Gibbs said that McCain continually says one thing to one audience and a complete different thing to another audience. (more…)
