Latino Vote To Be Cast With Heart Not Mind

By Victor Escalante, Newstaco

Latinos, for the most part, have made up their mind who they want as president. This is grim news for Mitt Romney, because according to Univision anchor, Jorge Ramos, some seventy percent will vote Democratic. In his open letter to Republicans, he warns that since Ronald Reagan any presidential candidate that lost, got less than a third of the Latino vote.

If this is true all the fan fare that we are about to witness with the conventions, debates and eleventh hour advertising is all for naught. Millions of dollars will be spent on Hispanic advertising till Election Day. In fact, the 2012 elections will go down in history as the costliest on record. One estimate puts the price tag at $5,000,000,800. That is a staggering amount to market two very different brands of politics.

Will Latinos listen, and more importantly will they believe the message? In short no. Latinos are a visceral demographic that make choices, with their heart, not their mind. All the advertising crafted by some of the brightest minds in the industry will have little effect on moving the emotional needle because Latinos were not welcomed in the primaries.

The alarm that orthodox centrist Republicans have sounded like Jeb Bush, and Carl Rove is being drowned out by the giddy base that is now headed to the RNC pep rally. So how did we get here? According to the man that delivers the daily political, national news to millions of Latinos:

• The opposition to immigration reform and the Dream Act for the millions of undocumented in the country.
• The Republican policies of making life impossible for the undocumented to self deport.
• The Arizona bill, now law SB 1070.
• The copycat laws in other states that mimic SB 1070 and other anti Latino laws.
• Last but not least the polarizing nuclear Joe Arpaio.

Some Latino Republican strategists are still scratching their heads wondering where the “official” ground troops are, this late in the game, to reinforce the local voter outreach initiatives. On the national media stage, there is also a deficit in having an A team of surrogates to connect with Latinos. Democrats at this point appear to be sitting smug with the Latino vote in the bank. However, Mr. Ramos is not done. In his next letter, he will roast Democrats equally on their politics. Word of advice, when Jorge  Ramos speaks, Latinos  listen, every night.