This Week:   1. Obama Transition Frustrates Latinos

                        2. Most Influential Latino Politicos

                        3. Trouble in Dixie Land

  

1.  OBAMA TRANSITION FRUSTRATES LATINOS

As President-elect Obama’s transition team plows through stacks of résumés to fill almost 10,000 federal jobs — from the high-profile Secretary of Commerce to the less glitzy director of the Office of Personnel Management — Hispanic groups have mobilized to ensure that the nation’s fastest-growing electorate is well represented in the new executive branch.

But as Latinos continue to get passed over for major appointments, few Latino leaders think the transition is inclusive of Latinos. Latinos were crucial to Obama’s electoral landslide, helping to deliver the margin of victory in several Western states, and flipped the key battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida and Virginia. The President-elect earned 67 percent of the Latino vote nationwide, up almost 10 percentage points from John F. Kerry in 2004, even as the number of Latino voters increased by nearly three million.

Democrats Not Responsive – When asked “if the Obama team was adequately including Latinos in the transition process, 32 percent said ‘no’, 46 percent were not sure or didn’t know, and only 22 percent said ‘yes.’ 53 percent said that the Democratic Party was not being responsive to the needs of the Latino community, as opposed to 21 percent who said it was responsive.

 http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/latino-opinion-leaders-skeptical-of-obama-transitions-responsiveness-study-says/

2. MOST INFLUENTIAL LATINO POLITICOS

The National Institute for Latino Policy surveyed American Latinos last month and asked who respondents perceived as the most influential Latino leaders in the nation. The results confirmed that Governor Bill Richardson, now Secretary of Commerce, is a favorite among his own: 48 percent consider Bill Richardson the most politically influential Latino today.

“Following far behind with less than 4 percent support,” NILP said, “were Chicago Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Bronx Congressman José Serrano, NCLR President Janet Murguia and businessman and former Clinton Cabinet member, Federico Peña.”

The National Latino Opinion Leaders Survey was conducted between November 8 and 14, 2008. Over 900 Latinos in the U.S. and Puerto Rico — community leaders, activists, government officials, business people, and members of nonprofit organizations, religion, academia and the media — took part, according to the institute, which published a summary of the study through its electronic newsletter.

http://feetin2worlds.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/latino-opinion-leaders-skeptical-of-obama-transitions-responsiveness-study-says/

MOST INFLUENTIAL LATINO POLITICOS

1.      Governor Bill Richardson, New Mexico

2.      Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Chicago

3.      Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles

4.      Congressman José Serrano, New York Bronx

5.      Janet Murguia, NCLR

6.     Federico Peña, former Cabinet member

Source: National Latino Opinion Leaders Survey, November 2008

3.  LOOK AWAY DIXIE LAND?

Republican anxiety grows as does the need for geographic & ethnic diversity

 

As the GOP wrestles with criticism that it is in danger of becoming a regional party rooted in the South, rather than one with broad appeal across the nation, the contest for chairman is shaping up in no small part as a referendum on just how much Southern flavor the party should have at the top in the wake of a sound electoral defeat in every other region of the country.

 

“There is a perception that we are a regional party and that we are a party from the South because that’s the region we’re consistently winning today,” said Michigan Republican Party Chair Saul Anuzis, the first declared candidate for the GOP’s top political job. “I do think we need to have our version of the 50-state program that [Democratic National Committee Chair Howard] Dean had.”

 

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16269.html