GOP Record on Hiring Latino Staffers is Dismal

All things being equal, Latinos stand a better chance at being congressional staffers if the congressperson is a Democrat as opposed to a Republican. Someone actually took pencil to paper and did the math.

We can thank Walter Wilson, a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, for that. He analyzed the hiring practices of each of the 435 members of the 111th Congress. Conservatives, he found, hire less Latino staffers. So if you’re Latino/a and had your sights on working on Capitol Hill for the 112th congress and you don’t already have an appointment, holding your breath, at this point, seems futile.

Politico.com takes the finding one level deeper: “While this may seem like an obvious finding — minorities are less well-represented in the Republican caucus in general — it still points to a larger issue highlighted by the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association, which in a separate study showed that Hispanic aides are severely underrepresented on the Hill, especially in key positions like chief of staff and legislative director.”

Here’s a quick glance at the overall numbers for top level staffers in House of representatives, as calculated by the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association:

I don’t mean to be snarky, but it looks like the CHSA could use a few more members. Nancy Pelosi, reportedly, thought so too. She launched a diversity initiative in the House to address the disparity. There are no projections as to how that initiative will fare starting next year.