Jun
23
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- The mayor said NO
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- Newsom and Villaraigosa
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- Jerry Brown and Cesar Chavez in 1975
The latino vote was the one thing that LA Mayor A. Villaraigosa and his advisors thought was going to deliver to him his party’s nomination for governor of California. They calculated that he would get the lion share of that vote, -supposedly around 25% – and with a variety of other support he could easily win the primary.
It’s hard to know if that was going to happen but now it won’t for sure, and the big question is who of the other declared candidates could get most of that vote? And are there other potential candidates, even latinos, who could take this chance to run?
André Pineda, who polled for Barack Obama in the general election last year, did some polling of latino primary voters in California –he’s not affiliated with any of the gubernatorial campaigns- but he tells me that, at this point, it looks WIDE OPEN with latinos.
“Only 23 percent of Latino voters felt very positive or very negative about Jerry Brown. Only 11 percent felt very positive or very negative about Gavin Newsom. In other words, very few Latino primary voters have strong feelings about either of the current Democratic candidates for governor”, said Pineda after I elicited his opinion on the issue.
Latino voters care about the economy and health care, added Pineda (not surprisingly, and probably very similar to other groups).
It’s hard to know whether Brown, who is now CA attorney general o Newsom, the young progressive mayor of San Francisco will be attractive to latinos. Brown has a long history, period. But he also has a long history with latinos: he was governor when the farm worker’s UFW, worked with Cesar Chavez and promulgated the UFW’s backed Agricultural Labor Relations Act, the first in the country. He also nominated judge Cruz Reynoso to the CA supreme court, the first latino in that position.
But Newsom also has some track record. As San Francisco mayor he has been sensitive to diversity and has started progressive policies such as including immigrants in his universal health care and giving i.d. cards to the undocumented. Newsom seems eager to get some of that vote, and specially getting A.Villaraigosa’s support, given the fact that immediately after LA’s mayor said he would not run for gov, he sent out a press release saying very nice things about him and put the above shown picture of the two of them on his website front page. Just something nice to do.
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3 Responses to “Without AV ¿who will attract latino votes in 2010?”
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AV has taken a hit but he is not out of anything yet. If the polls turn around he just might run. Latinos like Newsome because he is very good on immigration. Not enouhg of Latinos know about Newsome yet.
Dear Pilar,
Just a short comment I had posted earlier this morning on Lupitanews – A Northern CA newsletter. Since I have been living and working in Oakland and San Francisco since 1995, here is my 2 cents about Brown and Newsom, in the best spirit of giving different perspectives:
“..Now that Antonio Villaraigosa is out of the CA Governor race the title could easily go to either Jerry Brown or Gavin Newsom. I wonder, though, if Brown’s campaign fully gets it that the younger voters as well as the former-immigrant-now-new-voters did not experience Jerry Brown as governor therefore they may not fully understand what a conscious, hard working and fair elected official he has been. For Newsom, I just wish his people truly get that the vast Latino community (Mexican-Americans, Mexicans, Central Americans, South Americans, Spanish-speaking, English-only, bilingual and bicultural, first generation, third generation, should I keep going?) does not truly perceive Newsom as a champ. Si señor, many ask would he truly deliver not only in terms of immigrant rights but more importantly does he truly value the contributions of this community? Lets see what Gavin Newsom actually demonstrates……”
# # #
Jerry Brown has a well known and relatively favorable track record among older latinos but younger latino don’t know Brown’s history with latinos and may prefer Newsom’s youth. Newsom is already trying to make himself look and sound like Obama (although he was a hardcore Hillary supporter).
Newsom also has a poor record with Latinos in San Francisco. His hiring of a latino police chief is an exception to the rule.
Most of Newsom’s attention has been on gay
rights/marriage and a lot of attention on
the African American community because of the gang violence there. Newsom has been an absentee mayor in SF’s Latino neighborhoods
and he has watered down the policy to protect
undocumented youth. Most of the city’s protections for undocumented were initiated and lobbied for by progressive members of the Board of Supervisors NOT Newsom.