Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

Felipe Ramirez, a Mexican immigrant living in Queens, cannot vote. Yet he has decided to volunteer his time with the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, distributing fliers and speaking to the parents of Hispanic children at area schools. Watch the video to hear him talk about his experiences.

Organizers of last week’s May Day immigrant rights demonstrations, which took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston, and Miami, attributed this year’s low turnout to fears of rising raids on businesses that hire illegal workers, as well as stalled Congressional efforts to revamp immigration law, and disagreement among activists as many turn their focus to new political strategies like voter registration drives.

Here are some highlights:

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As Arizona grapples with the state’s large undocumented immigrant population, Gov. Janet Napolitano last Monday vetoed a bill that would have required all police officers and sheriffs to enforce immigration laws by partnering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, or by receiving immigration training. Napolitano said the hefty price tag, which could top $100 million, would burden the state because there was no guarantee of federal funding to implement the bill. [Read more →]

Without widespread immigration reform from Congress, some local governments are taking it upon themselves to deal directly with illegal immigration. But using taxpayer money can stir tensions, at least in the case of Prince William County, Virginia, and nearby communities.

Prince William first received attention when it passed its crackdown plan last year. The move spurred protests, but also prompted ten grassroots anti-illegal-immigration groups to join forces in the Capital Area Alliance Against Immigration.

The county expects to save $6 million as a result of hundreds of foreign-born families moving their children to public schools in nearby Fairfax County, Arlington County and Alexandria, reports Amy Gardner in an April 28 Washington Post article. Yet, as a result of the move, those neighboring suburbs face “a new financial burden … in a time of lean budgets.” At the same time, the total cost of enforcement to Prince William County is expected to total more than $26 million, creating a further tax squeeze for its own residents, Gardener writes.

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As pundits debate whether Latino voters will back Democrats or Republicans, New York City’s oldest Spanish language daily newspaper suggests they consider backing third party candidates. In an April 4 editorial, El Diario la Prensa’s Jose Armas argues that Ralph Nader and his likely running mate, Matt Gonzales, are just as worthy of Latino votes as the two main parties.

“Are we throwing away our votes if we vote for Nader? No more than we have in voting for the last 43 presidents.”

Armas cites a December 2007 poll by the paper’s publisher, Impremedia, that shows a record 15 percent of Latinos in five key states are registered as independent or members of a third party. The poll also shows 58 percent are registered as Democrats, and 20 percent as Republicans, and that 37 percent said they have no preference for a candidate from either of the two main parties.

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Arguably the idea of “sounding presidential” originated with Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president who was first to have his inauguration broadcast on radio. During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt’s voice reassured the nation as he delivered his “fireside chats” to persuade the nation to get behind the New Deal.As the current crop of presidential candidates try to convince voters they have the solutions for today’s troubles they do a lot of talking. There are debates and interviews, town hall forums, and countless speeches. Expert voice coach, comedian, and sometimes commentator, Marilyn Pittman, gives her two cents about how presidential McCain, Obama and Clinton have been sounding on the trail. Check it out.

In a front page column in the New York Times last week, Adam Liptak outlined a brewing legal battle against Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff’s use of sweeping new powers to expedite the construction of barriers along America’s southwestern borders.

But a legal challenge to the use of those powers is being heard at the Supreme Court, posing yet another obstacle to the border fence project, even as it being assailed by activists on both sides of the immigration debate.

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The New York Times reports that bankruptcies were up 18 percent in February from the previous month, and 28 percent from the same time the previous year.  With all the economic gloom and doom we’ve been hearing, this may not sound surprising, but interestingly, the housing market and gas prices are probably not the biggest culprits.  In fact, medical costs account for half of all bankruptcies.  In our world of rising insurance costs and uncertain coverage, a medical crisis becomes a financial crisis almost immediately.  The added expenses, in the form of co-pays and prescription costs, eat away at the monthly budget.  And employer-based health coverage, the most common form of health insurance for Americans, becomes vulnerable at the exact moment it’s most needed.  A sick person can’t always work, but if he loses his job he will lose his coverage as well as his income.  Medical costs also account for 15 percent of second mortgages, so some of the fallout from the mortgage crisis may also be the result of loans taken out to fill the gap during a personal emergency.  Bottom line: stay healthy.

The race for California’s heavily Republican 4th Congressional District pits two politicans that don’t live in the district.  Former Rep. Doug Ose is located just miles outside of the district in adjacent Sacramento County, while state Senator Tom McClintock has represented Ventura County based legislative districts in the State Capitol.  Doug Ose has come out with a new ad attacking McClintock for “representing Los Angeles in the legislature” and “At first he was going to run for Congress here, in L.A.”  He probably floated the idea for running for his Ventura County based Congressional seat when Rep. Elton Gallegly decided to retire, but he changed his mind last minute.  The ad continuesd, “And then he thought about running in the Bay Area.”  He probably flirted with the idea of challenging newly elected Rep. Jerry McNerney for his San Joaquin County/East Bay Distirct.  Not a bad idea, because he has been living in Elk Grove in Southern Sacramento County for a while, just miles from McNerney’s district.  Kinda like Ose living in Northern Sacramento County just miles from the 4th Congressional District.  The full text of the ad is here. 

What’s funny about the ad is that the narrator is running around a large map of California with a shopping cart explaining McClintock is shopping around for a California district to run in.  First he says, “Los Angeles” when actuallity the ad shows him standing in Ventura County, then he runs to the “Bay Area”, over San Francisco, not the Easy Bay San Joaquin County in the Central Valley.  In the end he stops in Sacramento, not the Sierra Foothills where most of the population is in the 4th Congressional District.  Ouch, that would hurt if I lived in Placer County! 

While much media ado is being made about the boost among Latino voters that Barack Obama may have won following his endorsement last week from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the bigger payoff could come in the form of diplomatic cover that the onetime Clinton ally now provides for other superdelegates that might follow suit.

“As the nation’s only Hispanic governor,” reported the International Herald Tribune, “Richardson could become a champion for Obama among Hispanic voters, who have been a key voting bloc for Clinton in the primaries thus far.”

So far, the much-courted Latino vote has indeed been crucial to Clinton’s primary campaign in New Mexico, Texas, and California. In those three states, she outpolled Obama among Latino voters by about two-to-one, according to a report this month from the Pew Research Center.

But, as the focus turns toward states like Pennsylvania, the Latino vote isn’t likely to play a decisive role.

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