On Tuesday at a briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, the NALEO Educational Fund released the findings of a survey of 1,600 Latino registered voters in four states that will have open or competitive gubernatorial or senatorial races this coming November. These states are California, Colorado, Florida, and Texas.
The panel was moderated by NALEO President Arturo Vargas and the findings were discussed by Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez.
27 percent of those in the survey said that immigration is the most important issue in deciding whom to vote for in the November midterm elections. 15 percent said that unemployment was a top issue.
Below is a list of the key findings released by NALEO:
- An overwhelming majority (61%) of Latino registered voters surveyed say they will “definitely” vote in the November midterm elections; this despite the historically low voter participation in “off-year” elections.
- The majority of Latino voters in these states approve of President Obama’s job performance. However, far fewer of these Latino registered voters approve of the job performance of Congress.
- The current debate around the issue of immigration is playing a significant role in the political decisions of registered Latino voters, including increasing the likelihood of voting, and influencing their selection of candidate.
- Immigration has emerged as the top policy issue for Latino registered voters in these four states, overtaking economic issues, education and healthcare.
The Arizona’s controversial new law, SB1070, also may have had an impact on the way Latinos are viewing politics. Cardona said, “What is so striking to me in my many years of looking at polling, is that this is the first time that immigration is the number one issue among Latino voters,”
Sanchez accused Democrats of politicizing the issue saying, they, “would rather have this as a political issue in November rather than a legislative issue right now.”
A couple of weeks ago, President Obama made a national address in which he reaffirmed his support for passing comprehensive immigration reform and said that Democrats were on board, but that it could not happen without at least some support from Senate Republicans.
Sanchez added, “I think the most positive aspects of immigration reform, bipartisan reform, will happen in 2011.”
This shows that we need immigration reform now. I think that SB 1070had an impact on our mentality.