Lessons for 2008 in November Latino Turnout

by Mike Hall

In the November elections, when national voter turnout dropped by 8.5 percent from 2002’s off-year election, it would be logical, says Gabriela Lemus, that the nation’s Latino voters would show a similar decline.

Wrong, says the new executive director the AFL-CIO’s Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). In a new Point of View (POV) column at www.aflcio.org, Lemus writes that the trend-bucking increase in Latino turnout—up from 5.3 percent of total voter turnout to 8 percent in 2006, a 37 percent jump—can be traced to one major factor—the vicious anti-immigrant atmosphere that surrounded last year’s national debate on immigration reform.

Millions of people marched in the streets on behalf of immigrants in what seemed to be a nearly spontaneous, yet peaceful, uprising for workers. Meanwhile, Congress appeared to have fallen into a state of schizophrenia—especially members of the House—with its summertime series of hearings that essentially attacked immigrants and questioned the validity of Hispanic citizens.

Cities like Hazelton, Pa., passed ordinances that racially-profiled Latinos and demanded that English be the only language spoken. Minutemen became the vanguard of vigilantism against immigrants, but also harassed Hispanic voters in places like Tucson, Ariz. Congressional campaigns ran attack ads designed to motivate the anti-immigrant base. All of these efforts backfired. Instead of a massive uprising against immigrants at the polls, we witnessed a tide of Hispanic voters casting their ballots.

She writes that 69 percent of the Latino vote went to Democratic candidates, debunking the pundits’ claims that the Bush administration and Republicans were capturing the heart, soul and votes of Latino voters.

Latino voters were considered aligned with the Republican Party because of their allegedly similar views on religion, family, and entrepreneurship. But what the pundits ignored is that Latinos also are workers and critical thinkers who believe in social justice. When polled in this election cycle, Latinos were concerned about the war in Iraq, education, health care and job security, but the anti-immigrant factor and perceived anti-Hispanic agenda helped the Democrats win. In effect, Latino voters demonstrated how serious they are about the statement they had made earlier in the year: “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.”

With the new Democratic Congress setting the agenda for the first time in nearly a dozen years and the 2008 presidential election on the horizon, Lemus writes:

There is a lesson here. The Latino community is not a monolith and does not wish to be taken for granted.

It is critical that we continue to link politics to organizing and look to the Hispanic community as an opportunity. As we build capacity for the unions in the years ahead, this young vibrant community has a very important role to play in the growth of the labor movement and in the political system of this country. The policies that the 110th Congress establishes in the coming years must include thoughtful immigration reform that addresses workers’ rights including the right to organize, labor protections against exploitation, a legalization mechanism for those undocumented workers already here and a sensible view to the future flows of workers.

Source: AFL-CIO