Trump Will Change This
Sep 11, 2015 14:29:04 #
Low turnout weakens power of Latino v**e
By Kate Linthicum
LAMONT, Calif. By all accounts, the Central Valley is a place where Latino candidates should win e******ns.
Latino political activism here dates back to the farmworker movement of the 1960s. In one congressional district that stretches up through the valley from Kern County to Fresno County, nearly 3 out of 4 residents are Latino.
Yet Latino candidates e******n losses have piled up here in recent years in large part because Latinos arent turning out to v**e.
For all the talk of the growing Latino e*****rate and the pivotal role it is expected to play in the 2016 p**********l race, there is another often overlooked demographic reality: Latinos, along with Asian Americans, remain dramatically underrepresented in most U.S. e******ns.
Half a century after passage of the V****g Rights Act, which ended legal barriers to v****g for b****s across the South, b****s and w****s now v**e at roughly equal rates, especially in p**********l e******ns. But Latinos and Asians lag far behind in all races, even when noncitizen immigrants are accounted for.
As a result, the U.S. e*****rate may be less reflective of the nations ethnic and racial diversity today than it was in the 1950s, when the country was 90% white, according to political scientist Bernard Fraga of Indiana University, who studies minority v****g trends.
In the 2014 midterm e******n, only 27% of eligible Latinos v**ed, compared with 46% of w****s and 41% of African Americans, according to U.S. census data.
While the Latino v**e is big and growing
an estimated 40 million Latinos will be eligible to v**e in 2030, up from about 25 million in 2014
its nowhere near as big as it could be.
Theres more Latinos and more eligible Latino v**ers in the United States than ever before, Fraga said. They should have even greater v****g strength than they do. They should be even more of a force in politics. But a lot of them arent turning out to v**e.
Understanding why Latinos arent v****g at a higher rate is an urgent question for candidates and parties who depend on their v**es to win.
Democrats say they will need a big Latino turnout to carry swing states such as Nevada, Colorado and probably Florida in the 2016 p**********l race. In next years U.S. Senate race in California, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) will depend on Latino v**es in her race against state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.
But there are many hurdles to improving turnout.
Latinos on average are younger than other groups, and young people of all races tend to v**e less than their elders. Last year, 33% of Latinos eligible to v**e were 18 to 29, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, compared with 18% of w****s, 25% of African Americans and 21% of Asian Americans.
The Latino population is also heavily concentrated in two places Texas and California that have not been swing states in p**********l e******ns for decades. Nearly half of the countrys eligible Latino v**ers live in those two states.
Because Democrats can usually count on winning statewide races in California, as can Republicans in Texas, neither party in those states has had an incentive to invest the huge sums necessary to register and turn out lots more Latino v**ers. By contrast, a large share of the black population lives in swing states that have been a heavy focus of v***r r**********n efforts.
Organizations and political parties arent focused enough on this segment of the population, said Marcela Ruiz, deputy director of California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides legal assistance to the states rural poor.
Last year, only 17% of eligible Latinos and 18% of eligible Asian Americans in California v**ed, according to an analysis by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. Turnout among all other racial groups was 40%.
Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest V***r R**********n Education Project, says rapid population growth among Latinos and limited funds for registration make it hard to keep up.
His organization will register about 20,000 new Latino v**ers this year in several states, he said. With more money, it could do much more.
Its a good market a growing market, he said. Nationally, about 800,000 Latinos turn 18 and become eligible to v**e each year.
Flavia Jimenez, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy organization, said Latinos would have more representation if the roughly 5 million who are legal permanent residents became citizens. Reducing the cost of the naturalization process would be a good first step, Jimenez said.
There are also cultural theories about why Latinos v**e at lower rates. Many are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and many have not grown up in families in which v****g was common practice.
Unlike African Americans, whose civil rights struggles in the 1960s were largely focused on v****g rights, some Latino immigrants may not have positive associations with e*******l politics.
Adelina Sanchez, 32, who grew up in this Central Valley town southeast of Bakersfield, says some of her Mexican immigrant relatives refuse to v**e because they dont trust the political system. Theyre so traumatized by politics in Mexico, she said.
Fredi Castrejon, 30, a Lamont resident who sits on the board of the local Recreation and Parks District, says some immigrants who are eligible to v**e dont believe they have a voice.
Sometimes we become citizens, but were still afraid to fully come out of the shadows, said Castrejon, a Mexican immigrant who became a U.S. citizen several years ago.
Last fall, Castrejon went door to door seeking v**es for Amanda Renteria, a Democrat who lost to Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao in the 21st Congressional District and who now is political director for Hillary Rodham Clintons p**********l campaign. Latinos are a majority of registered v**ers in the district, but only a third of them v**ed, compared with half of non-Latinos, according an analysis of exit polls by Political Data Inc., a bipartisan data vendor.
We had the numbers for her to win, Castrejon said. But turnout was so low.
Renterias loss was one of several Latino defeats in recent years. In 2013, Democratic Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez lost to Republican cherry farmer Andy Vidak in a special state Senate e******n, despite the fact that the district is two-thirds Latino.
There have been victories at the local level, Castrejon said, including the e******n of several young Latinos to the City Council in the nearby town of Arvin. Latinos have also led campaigns in several Central Valley towns, including Visalia, to change e******ns from at-large b****ting to v****g by geographic district a model that tends to favor minorities.
Several organizations that work with v**ers in the region say theyre learning what works to boost turnout.
A statewide nonprofit organization called California Calls identifies registered v**ers who arent turning out for e******ns and targets them with in-person and telephone v**er education campaigns.
We go back to these people again and again and again, said Karla Zombro, field director for the group. And were changing their v****g behavior over time.
In 2014, Latino v**ers that the group targeted turned out at a rate nearly 20% higher than other Latino v**ers, Zombro said.
For years, many groups focused simply on getting Latinos registered to v**e.
But just registering v**ers is not enough, said Camila Chavez, executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a nonprofit civic engagement group co-founded by Huerta, the famed farmworker organizer.
Now the organization hosts house parties where neighbors can discuss important b****t measures and other community initiatives, Chavez said. Canvassers ask for cellphone numbers and email addresses so they can follow up and remind people to v**e on e******n day.
Leticia Prado, 48, who runs a secondhand clothing store in Lamont, says the longer Latinos live in their communities, the more invested they will be in e*******l politics.
Several years ago, Prado helped lead the fight for a small tax increase that paid for a new gymnasium at a school in a nearby town. Now she sits on local school and water boards.
The experience taught her a lesson that she often shares with v**ers while canvassing for community initiatives or candidates.
Nothing is going to change in this community, she tells them, unless we change it. kate.linthicum  @latimes.com   Twitter: @katelinthicum
By Kate Linthicum
LAMONT, Calif. By all accounts, the Central Valley is a place where Latino candidates should win e******ns.
Latino political activism here dates back to the farmworker movement of the 1960s. In one congressional district that stretches up through the valley from Kern County to Fresno County, nearly 3 out of 4 residents are Latino.
Yet Latino candidates e******n losses have piled up here in recent years in large part because Latinos arent turning out to v**e.
For all the talk of the growing Latino e*****rate and the pivotal role it is expected to play in the 2016 p**********l race, there is another often overlooked demographic reality: Latinos, along with Asian Americans, remain dramatically underrepresented in most U.S. e******ns.
Half a century after passage of the V****g Rights Act, which ended legal barriers to v****g for b****s across the South, b****s and w****s now v**e at roughly equal rates, especially in p**********l e******ns. But Latinos and Asians lag far behind in all races, even when noncitizen immigrants are accounted for.
As a result, the U.S. e*****rate may be less reflective of the nations ethnic and racial diversity today than it was in the 1950s, when the country was 90% white, according to political scientist Bernard Fraga of Indiana University, who studies minority v****g trends.
In the 2014 midterm e******n, only 27% of eligible Latinos v**ed, compared with 46% of w****s and 41% of African Americans, according to U.S. census data.
While the Latino v**e is big and growing
an estimated 40 million Latinos will be eligible to v**e in 2030, up from about 25 million in 2014
its nowhere near as big as it could be.
Theres more Latinos and more eligible Latino v**ers in the United States than ever before, Fraga said. They should have even greater v****g strength than they do. They should be even more of a force in politics. But a lot of them arent turning out to v**e.
Understanding why Latinos arent v****g at a higher rate is an urgent question for candidates and parties who depend on their v**es to win.
Democrats say they will need a big Latino turnout to carry swing states such as Nevada, Colorado and probably Florida in the 2016 p**********l race. In next years U.S. Senate race in California, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) will depend on Latino v**es in her race against state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris.
But there are many hurdles to improving turnout.
Latinos on average are younger than other groups, and young people of all races tend to v**e less than their elders. Last year, 33% of Latinos eligible to v**e were 18 to 29, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, compared with 18% of w****s, 25% of African Americans and 21% of Asian Americans.
The Latino population is also heavily concentrated in two places Texas and California that have not been swing states in p**********l e******ns for decades. Nearly half of the countrys eligible Latino v**ers live in those two states.
Because Democrats can usually count on winning statewide races in California, as can Republicans in Texas, neither party in those states has had an incentive to invest the huge sums necessary to register and turn out lots more Latino v**ers. By contrast, a large share of the black population lives in swing states that have been a heavy focus of v***r r**********n efforts.
Organizations and political parties arent focused enough on this segment of the population, said Marcela Ruiz, deputy director of California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides legal assistance to the states rural poor.
Last year, only 17% of eligible Latinos and 18% of eligible Asian Americans in California v**ed, according to an analysis by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. Turnout among all other racial groups was 40%.
Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest V***r R**********n Education Project, says rapid population growth among Latinos and limited funds for registration make it hard to keep up.
His organization will register about 20,000 new Latino v**ers this year in several states, he said. With more money, it could do much more.
Its a good market a growing market, he said. Nationally, about 800,000 Latinos turn 18 and become eligible to v**e each year.
Flavia Jimenez, a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, a civil rights advocacy organization, said Latinos would have more representation if the roughly 5 million who are legal permanent residents became citizens. Reducing the cost of the naturalization process would be a good first step, Jimenez said.
There are also cultural theories about why Latinos v**e at lower rates. Many are immigrants or the children of immigrants, and many have not grown up in families in which v****g was common practice.
Unlike African Americans, whose civil rights struggles in the 1960s were largely focused on v****g rights, some Latino immigrants may not have positive associations with e*******l politics.
Adelina Sanchez, 32, who grew up in this Central Valley town southeast of Bakersfield, says some of her Mexican immigrant relatives refuse to v**e because they dont trust the political system. Theyre so traumatized by politics in Mexico, she said.
Fredi Castrejon, 30, a Lamont resident who sits on the board of the local Recreation and Parks District, says some immigrants who are eligible to v**e dont believe they have a voice.
Sometimes we become citizens, but were still afraid to fully come out of the shadows, said Castrejon, a Mexican immigrant who became a U.S. citizen several years ago.
Last fall, Castrejon went door to door seeking v**es for Amanda Renteria, a Democrat who lost to Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao in the 21st Congressional District and who now is political director for Hillary Rodham Clintons p**********l campaign. Latinos are a majority of registered v**ers in the district, but only a third of them v**ed, compared with half of non-Latinos, according an analysis of exit polls by Political Data Inc., a bipartisan data vendor.
We had the numbers for her to win, Castrejon said. But turnout was so low.
Renterias loss was one of several Latino defeats in recent years. In 2013, Democratic Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez lost to Republican cherry farmer Andy Vidak in a special state Senate e******n, despite the fact that the district is two-thirds Latino.
There have been victories at the local level, Castrejon said, including the e******n of several young Latinos to the City Council in the nearby town of Arvin. Latinos have also led campaigns in several Central Valley towns, including Visalia, to change e******ns from at-large b****ting to v****g by geographic district a model that tends to favor minorities.
Several organizations that work with v**ers in the region say theyre learning what works to boost turnout.
A statewide nonprofit organization called California Calls identifies registered v**ers who arent turning out for e******ns and targets them with in-person and telephone v**er education campaigns.
We go back to these people again and again and again, said Karla Zombro, field director for the group. And were changing their v****g behavior over time.
In 2014, Latino v**ers that the group targeted turned out at a rate nearly 20% higher than other Latino v**ers, Zombro said.
For years, many groups focused simply on getting Latinos registered to v**e.
But just registering v**ers is not enough, said Camila Chavez, executive director of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, a nonprofit civic engagement group co-founded by Huerta, the famed farmworker organizer.
Now the organization hosts house parties where neighbors can discuss important b****t measures and other community initiatives, Chavez said. Canvassers ask for cellphone numbers and email addresses so they can follow up and remind people to v**e on e******n day.
Leticia Prado, 48, who runs a secondhand clothing store in Lamont, says the longer Latinos live in their communities, the more invested they will be in e*******l politics.
Several years ago, Prado helped lead the fight for a small tax increase that paid for a new gymnasium at a school in a nearby town. Now she sits on local school and water boards.
The experience taught her a lesson that she often shares with v**ers while canvassing for community initiatives or candidates.
Nothing is going to change in this community, she tells them, unless we change it. kate.linthicum  @latimes.com   Twitter: @katelinthicum
Sep 11, 2015 14:38:09 #
KHH1 wrote:
Low turnout weakens power of Latino v**e br br... (show quote)
You should tell all those latinos to get out and v**e or you will slur their wives or mothers with your nasty sick racial sexual comments, that may help motivate them....you slime ball.
Sep 11, 2015 14:39:40 #
America Only wrote:
Now you're letting him pull your chain.You should tell all those latinos to get out and v**e or you will slur their wives or mothers with your nasty sick racial sexual comments, that may help motivate them....you slime ball.
Sep 11, 2015 14:48:59 #
KHH1 wrote:
Low turnout weakens power of Latino v**e br br... (show quote)
Wetbacks don't v**e, someone v**es for them, they are far too stupid and most cannot even read......that's that v***r f***d thingy someone keeps bringing up.
Sep 11, 2015 14:59:38 #
Super Dave wrote:
Now you're letting him pull your chain.
Not really just pointing out his MODE of Operation....LOL!
Sep 11, 2015 17:17:08 #
America Only wrote:
You should tell all those latinos to get out and v**e or you will slur their wives or mothers with your nasty sick racial sexual comments, that may help motivate them....you slime ball.
I have never said anything to anyone who was not addressing me that way initially you pathological liar.
Sep 11, 2015 17:18:31 #
America Only wrote:
You should tell all those latinos to get out and v**e or you will slur their wives or mothers with your nasty sick racial sexual comments, that may help motivate them....you slime ball.
Weewilly stated: Wetbacks don't v**e, someone v**es for them, they are far too stupid and most cannot even read......that's that v***r f***d thingy someone keeps bringing up.
*Let me see what your comment to him will be*
Sep 11, 2015 17:26:14 #
KHH1 wrote:
Weewilly stated: Wetbacks don't v**e, someone v**es for them, they are far too stupid and most cannot even read......that's that v***r f***d thingy someone keeps bringing up.
*Let me see what your comment to him will be*
*Let me see what your comment to him will be*
I will state it again....wetbacks don't v**e, not one illegal that has worked for my company under me knows s**t about v****g, they could care less, someone may v**e in their name but it aint them.
They just don't care.
Sep 11, 2015 17:37:30 #
Super Dave wrote:
It is laughable that the person who is a good candidate for being the worst at adding nothing to discussions here but childish or profane insults is himself so easily offended.Now you're letting him pull your chain.
Sep 11, 2015 17:44:44 #
KHH1 wrote:
I don't know what you wrote to put a bee in his bonnet but keep up the good work, this clown is a silly little asshole who wastes space here and adds nothing but childish blather and vulgarity to discussions.I have never said anything to anyone who was not addressing me that way initially you pathological liar.
Sep 11, 2015 19:05:05 #
Kevyn wrote:
It is laughable that the person who is a good candidate for being the worst at adding nothing to discussions here but childish or profane insults is himself so easily offended.
I told him he was out of his league...he is rude, r****t and demeaning, yet sensitive....he wants it both ways....he posts monkey pictures of me while calling ME r****t at the very same time....I told him he would drive himself batty trying to do the same to me and now it has come to fruition...he's losing his mind....first denying what I said I accomplished...then to Rockwell documents after I told him how he could prove it with HIS PEOPLE (another lie)......called me a janitor...said I was stupid and couldn't write...so I posted my writing and another award I received for writing...none of it is a big deal to me but I knew it would be to him.....so now he decided I could go ahead and be a professor as I stated and with his permission....so now he is threatening to tell the Board and KTLA...like they have time for this petty schit ....and actually states I'll get jail time for calling him a r****t phuck...I had him posting pictures of cars, ugly jewelry...naming his shoes...claiming he has a jet...pays 19,000/yr. on car insurance, 400k/yr. in taxes...I think his lies, hatred and hypocrisy has started to take its toll...because all of that is a hard act to keep up....but old r****t geezers are too proud to change...they'll go down with the ship before they let SOMEONE ELSE...show them how to keep it afloat........ :roll:
Sep 11, 2015 19:08:30 #
Kevyn wrote:
I don't know what you wrote to put a bee in his bonnet but keep up the good work, this clown is a silly little asshole who wastes space here and adds nothing but childish blather and vulgarity to discussions.
I have dealt with his type before so when he pulled out all the stops and gave it his best, most h**eful r****t shots...he expected shock value and dismay like he has been getting all his life from people...I just yawned and pushed back waay harder....so he experienced the shock value he thought he was going to project onto me....as Gomer Pyle would say, SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!
Sep 12, 2015 17:06:27 #
America Only wrote:
You should tell all those latinos to get out and v**e or you will slur their wives or mothers with your nasty sick racial sexual comments, that may help motivate them....you slime ball.
lol. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
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