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The Washington
Times
www.washingtontimes.com
By Steve Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published June 20, 2004
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040620-125543-8270r.htm
SANTA ANA, Calif. -- It was predicted, and doubted, years ago.
There are seven Hispanic Republicans challenging Democratic
incumbents for congressional seats and another dozen or so running
for the state Assembly.
Some have run and lost before, but are bolstered by the party's
heightened profile among Hispanics prompted by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. But others are newly minted federal candidates,
likewise prompted by the governor's standing in the community.
Leading the pack of new Republican hopefuls in the largest blue
state in the land is Alexandria Coronado, 36, a
single mother who believes she can unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez in a
district that is 34 percent Republican.
"You know that in politics, the pendulum swings," says Miss
Coronado, a pianist and a member of the Orange County Board of
Education. "And it will swing this way, and that's when you will see
more Republican Hispanics running for the higher offices. For a long
time, they were school board members and things like that. Not
anymore."
The Democratic utopia of California makes such a proposed
transformation all the more unlikely because it is a state where
Democrats have ruled with the faithful help of the nationally
coveted Hispanic vote.
Even state pundits don't doubt some of these challenges.
"You know, Loretta Sanchez is vulnerable," Dick Rosengarten,
publisher of the state political news weekly California Political
Week, said of the 47th District incumbent. "And some of these other
Hispanic candidates can make things tough for the incumbents. The
state party has done a tremendous job of recruiting here."
Many of these eager Hispanic Republican candidates are no-chancers
who are continuing an effort to pave the way.
Still aching from a 81 percent to 19 percent drubbing two years
ago, Luis Vega, a native of Puerto Rico, is again
taking on Rep. Xavier Becerra in the 31st District, an urban enclave
that is built for Democrats, with young people, activist immigrants
and lifelong liberals.
"It's hard to find any candidate who will even run in these
districts," says Mr. Vega, a former Spanish-language television
reporter. "But as more and more immigrants become naturalized, they
can now vote. We see more Hispanic candidates running Republican as
more and more votes become available. And more immigrants are going
to have to see that they have voting options, rather than just going
for the Democrat."
Victor Elizalde vows to "continue the recall
revolution," as his campaign literature puts it, in his bid to
unseat Henry A. Waxman, who has represented a mostly upscale portion
of the Los Angeles area since 1974.
Mr. Waxman's 30th District sprawls from Santa Monica to the
heart of Hollywood and then north to a more modest section of
blue-collar homes. It is 75 percent white and 7 percent Hispanic.
Rather than trading on his Mexican heritage, then, Mr. Elizalde,
36, is championing his party while firmly grasping the coattails of
the governor.
"This Republican resurgence started with Arnold," says the
Chicago native, who is both pro-choice and strongly against illegal
immigration.
Like the other candidates, he thinks that the lingering effects
of the state's Proposition 187 issue, a Republican-backed referendum
that proposed to stop illegal immigrants from receiving social
services, will go away.
The measure was approved by voters in 1994 but was successfully
overturned in a legal challenge four years later. That issue
alienated many Hispanics and gave Democrats a political bazooka to
use whenever ethnic politics came up.
When Tim Escobar goes door-knocking in a leafy
neighborhood of the L.A. suburb of La Mirada, he tells residents
proudly of his Republican affiliation. And he tells his potential
constituents that he is trying to unseat first-term Rep. Linda T.
Sanchez -- Loretta Sanchez's sister -- in the state's 39th District.
"I'm just a normal guy who wants to go to Washington," he tells
a resident named Frank, who doesn't give away his political
affiliation.
Frank has an American flag outside his one-story ranch home
proclaiming "We support our troops." And on his white Chevy van, he
has a Teamsters sticker.
"This district is registered 57 percent Democrat, 29 percent
Republican and is 60 percent Hispanic," Mr. Escobar says later. When
he spoke to a living room full of Hispanic residents in nearby
Lynwood earlier this year, "they were listening to their first
Republican."
Ask him what the governor's help would mean in a race that may
be tight, and the candidate's campaign manager jumps in as Mr.
Escobar smiles broadly.
"Arnold is the kingmaker now," said the manager, Mark
Sturdevant.
Mr. Schwarzenegger received 31 percent of the state's Hispanic
vote in last year's recall election, which most credit to his
action-figure appeal.
His election galvanized the state's diminished Republican Party.
A recent fund-raiser with Mr. Schwarzenegger as headliner garnered
$2.2 million for the party.
Today's 7.65 percent gap in voter registration between
Republicans and Democrats is the narrowest since the 1930s.
Some state Republicans are so confident that they believe
President Bush can take the state in November. Party chiefs, off the
record, doubt such a thing.
"I applaud [California Republican Party Chairman] Duf Sundheim
for rolling out these Hispanic Republicans," says Art Torres,
chairman of the California Democratic Party. "The incumbents do need
to watch out, and it's healthy."
Still, he said, "California has never been a voting state for
Hispanic Republicans. The only people to make inroads there are
Ronald Reagan, first as governor and then as president, and now
Arnold."
Mr. Torres, a savvy veteran of ethnic politics, adds: "And 187
is still an issue and it continue to resurface. It is still a
problem."
The cadre of Hispanic Republican candidates says it simply isn't
so.
"It's dead," Mr. Escobar said. "It only comes up when Democrats
talk to each other."
Copyright © 2004
News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
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