That Democratic presidential candidates are reaching out to Hispanic voters hardly seems like front-page news, but the New York Times fronts a piece today about Dems doing just that. The article details much of what you’d expect: Dem candidates have decided “to hire outreach consultants, to start Spanish-language Web sites and to campaign vigorously before Hispanic audiences.”
The Times piece did, however, include one tidbit I hadn’t heard before.
Strategists for several Democratic campaigns say the new calendar has set the stage for Hispanic voters to have much more influence in picking the parties’ presidential nominees than they did when states like Iowa and New Hampshire were essentially alone among the early states in the nominating process.
In fact, in the 2004 race, Senator John Kerry did not assemble a Hispanic outreach and media operation until about five months before the general election.
Really? There’s no point in spending too much time re-litigating the Kerry campaign three years later, but I can’t help but find it amazing that they didn’t create a Hispanic outreach program until that late in the game.
Granted, exit polls showed that Kerry won the Hispanic vote by a fair margin, 53% to 44%. But Bush’s share of the Hispanic vote went up considerably over his 2000 performance, and Kerry lost a number of close contests in southwestern states with large Latino populations.
Maybe Team Kerry could have started Hispanic outreach a little sooner?
