GOP Set To Spend $3 Million On State Level Latino Candidates

The problem with putting a price on politics is that you put a price on politics – it’s a doomed idea by definition.

Case in point: the GOP says it will spend at least $3 million to attract Latino voters for the 2012 election. They said so in a report published in the Washington Post. They also explained how they intend to spend the money:

• They’ll concentrate on sending more Latinos to statehouse offices.
• They intend to build on what they see as the momentum of 2010, when they elected Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico.
• They’ll be spending a big chunk of that money to identify and recruit 100 potential Latino Republican candidates.
• And they’ll spend most of the money in Texas and Florida, where they feel they have a better chance to win.

All of it makes sense, and none of it does.

The statehouse strategy makes sense in the context of the larger GOP strategy. They’ve been taking their battles over immigration, voting rights and budget priorities to the statehouses for several years. Their plan is to circumvent Washington politics in a concerted, multi-front effort in the guise of states rights. The problem is that the strategy, so far, has seen limited results in producing viable policy.  The immigration offensive has lost momentum and fizzled in places like Georgia and Utah.

The GOP’s intent to build on the victories of 2010 is a fools errand – mainly because the Latino Republican victories were not supported by Latino voters. Latinos won, but they won because white republicans voted for them.

The fact that they’ll spend the majority of the money in Florida and Texas seems like a waste, especially in Texas where the GOP is seen as the spark, heat and fuel of anti-immigrant bills, reductions in education spending and attacks on voting rights and redistricting battles.

If there are any winners in all it would have to be the Latino Republican political strategists – there’s only a handful of them and they’ll more than likely split the $3 million cash-cow. It’s not like the Democratic side, where Latino political specialists are like cowboys at a barn dance, waiting in the wings for a limited chance to dance with the pretty girl.

Then there’s the problem of the price.

Here’s what Ed Gillespie, head of the Republican State Leadership Committee, told the Washington Post about Latinos and the future of national politics:

“If we don’t adapt now to changes that are taking place in the country, we will face a very different electorate in a couple of cycles than we do today… If we don’t change our performance with some of these key constituencies, we’ll have a very difficult time being a majority party.”

Hidden in that quote are some notable gems.

The GOP sees the Latino writing on the wall, and their leadership acknowledges that Latinos are a key constituency.  So they’ll ante-up $3 million to find and run 100 Latino candidates at the state level, while doing their best to alienate Latinos in the very states they want to win – which is where they won before, but not with Latino votes.

Here’s something else to consider: acc0rding to the Pew Hispanic Center only 22% of surveyed Latino voters in 2010 said they’d vote for a Republican congressional candidate. And Republican Latinos were more likely to vote. That seems to be worth a $3 million bet to the GOP.

That’s $30 thousand per candidate. You do the math. How far do they expect to go?

Follow Victor Landa on Twiter: @vlanda