Interesting article in the
Washington Post this morning addressing what some on the Daily Kos had suspected. The extremist position of the GOP on the issue of immigration is beginning to cause Hispanics to turn against Bush and possibly the Republican Party at just the time when the party can least afford to lose support of any kind.
From the Post:
A survey of 800 registered Hispanic voters conducted May 11-15 by the nonpartisan Latino Coalition showed that Democrats were viewed as better able to handle immigration issues than Republicans, by nearly 3 to 1: 50 percent to 17 percent. Pitting the Democrats against Bush on immigration issues produced a 2 to 1 Democratic advantage, 45 percent to 22 percent...
Even if the GOP does maintain Bush's margins among Latinos in 2008, another study found that Democrats are likely to achieve a net gain in future elections, simply because Hispanics are growing as a share of the electorate...
In focus groups, Bendixen said, Hispanic anger over some of the proposals before Congress has not crystallized into partisan resentment of the GOP, but the general tenor of the debate has prompted many Latinos to see "Bush as a friend who has let them down," and who has caved in to anti-Hispanic pressures by proposing to put 6,000 National Guard troops on the Mexican border.
And while Bush made gains among Hispanics on issues like abortion and "family values," the Post reports:
"If you take immigration out of the equation, you'd have seen a continuous trend toward the Republican Party, to the more aggressive Republicans that have shown outreach to Hispanics," said Robert de Posada, chairman of the Latino Coalition.
Strasma said, "A few months ago, I would have predicted that they would make steady progress in the Hispanic vote, but with some of the rhetoric now I wonder whether conservative congressional Republicans might overreach and have a backlash."
Add to this the fact that the pro-immigrant group "We Are America Alliance" is gearing up to produce a million new voters and citizens between now and Election Day 2006, and you have an interesting twist to the 2006 election that the GOP did not anticipate.