As important as the Hispanic vote will be March 4, it could be even more critical in the November election. The nation's largest minority group leans heavily Democratic, potentially putting states with fast-growing Hispanic populations, including New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, within the party's reach.
Matthew Dowd, a top strategist in President Bush's re-election campaign, said the 2008 Republican ticket will need 40 percent of the Hispanic vote nationally to win the presidency. Reaching that target will be "tough," he added, because of "the perception that's built up over the last couple of years that Republicans are anti-Hispanic."
If any Republican has a chance to rebuild Hispanic support, he added, it's Arizona Sen. John McCain, because "he hasn't been negative on immigrants" like others in his party.
A Clinton campaign official argued that she is better equipped to prevent McCain from winning back Latinos.
Garry Mauro, a top campaign official in the state and longtime friend of the Clintons, warned that Obama's failure to establish a relationship with Latinos would hurt the party in November.
"Are we really going to nominate somebody who's going to be Karl Rove's dream candidate?" Mauro said in an interview. Obama "has not been able to communicate with the Hispanic community."
Obama has acknowledged that he has work to do in that area. "Of course, I need to learn Spanish," he blurted at a campaign event in Los Angeles, while discussing the need for immigrants to learn English.
Clinton, who doesn't speak Spanish either, appears to be rerunning the campaign that helped her defeat Obama by 35 percentage points among Latinos in the California primary. Her campaign commercials make a forceful emotional appeal, calling her a "champion of the voiceless"; one of her Spanish-language TV ads refers to her as "our friend."
In Texas for Clinton
Some of the same Hispanic leaders who campaigned for her in California have made appearances in Texas, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Dolores Huerta, who helped Caesar Chavez form the United Farm Workers of America.
A Clinton campaign ad now airing in Texas, similar to ones that ran in California, features Chavez's grandson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., part of an effort to counter Obama's support from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who campaigned last week in Hispanic areas of Texas.
