Newt Gingrich campaigning at a Mexican restaurant in Manchester, N.H., with printed materials en Español? Mitt Romney admitting to a Rochester, N.H., crowd that his father was “born” in Mexico.
That’s about as “in” to the Latino population as the Republican candidates for the party’s presidential nomination got themselves to during the past week leading up to Tuesday’s primary elections in New Hampshire.
IT’S ALL A matter of numbers, as in the above equation. With only 2.8 percent of the state’s 1.32 million people admitting to having Latino ethnic origins in their backgrounds, I’m sure most of the campaigns felt that this week was a “break” from having to address such ethnic concerns.
For all I know, these candidates got to run the kind of campaign they wish they could run everywhere – one appealing to people where diverse ethnic concerns (particularly anything associated with the Spanish language) don’t exist.
The one plus is that we really didn’t hear anyone say anything stupid about Latinos during the past few days. Since they pretty much ignored our existence, they didn’t do anything that those of us in other states could use against them once they begin campaigning on our turf (such as the Florida primary election coming up Jan. 31).
But I’d argue they’re not doing much of anything to appeal to us either. And that, as much as anything else, is going to be why most Latinos in other parts of the country are going to turn our attention away from the Republican primaries as they come about.
SERIOUSLY, I MENTIONED those two candidates earlier. But one can argue that the dynamic of the GOP primary field these days is whether any of the other candidates can knock Romney out – or will he truly become a dominant process who will overwhelm all who dare challenge him.
I’d say it’s largely out of Romney’s hands. And I wonder if anyone truly cares what the one-time U.S. senator from Georgia thinks about anyone – even Latinos.
All of this is to explain why I’m not all that concerned about the New Hampshire primary – even though many political geeks like to wet their pants at the idea of that tiny, northeasternmost state having such influence over determining who gets to run for president of our nation.
Now I know there are those who made an “issue” out of Iowa being un-diverse enough to not deserve “first in the nation” status for its caucuses (although Iowa’s Latino population has increased by 63 percent during the past decade).
BUT ONE CAN argue the same, if not moreso, for New Hampshire – where the Latino population has increased by about 75 percent during that same time period!
I can’t help but remember those old episodes of The West Wing that depicted campaign activity in New Hampshire and showed locals boasting of their diversity – as represented by a large number of “Franco-Americans.”
It’s the quirk of the campaign season. We get through these unrepresentative states, then we can get into the serious campaign activity in places that are more like the rest of the nation.
Then, were going to have the chance to see these candidates being pressured into addressing the Latino viewpoint on various concerns. And if the candidates think they can ignore us the way they have this past week in New Hampshire, they’re going to see how quickly we turn on them and make their political existence irrelevant.
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