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GOP convert puts Demos on notice
By Rhina Guidos and Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
Tuesday Apr. 6, 2004
Available online at:
http://www2.sltrib.com/politics/Main/Story.asp?VOL=04052004&NUM=154239
For more than three decades, Ana
Archuleta knocked on doors, stuffed envelopes and handed out
literature around Salt Lake City in the name of the Democratic
Party.
You could say the political affiliation was a family tradition in
her Latino household, where her parents campaigned for President
Kennedy and aunts and uncles sat around the kitchen table discussing
the best ways to help their favorite Democrats.
But these days, when you look at the voter registration record
that lists Ana Archuleta's home, you will find the word "Republican"
next to her name.
It has been two months since the lifelong Democrat officially
switched her political loyalty. Archuleta boasts of President Bush's
support for Latinos and other minorities, of the Republicans' focus
on family values and of the GOP's overall aggressive courtship of
the Latino vote.
"The Republicans have done a good job," says Archuleta, who
admits she would have laughed at anyone predicting her abandonment
of the Democrats even a few years ago.
But Archuleta says she is not the only Latino who has changed
party affiliation, or is thinking about it. "We've been taken for
granted" by the Democrats, she says.
Utah Democratic Party officials vigorously deny that. "We have a
record of and a tradition of inclusiveness; it's not just sombrero
politics," says Carlos Vasquez, state party secretary.
But anecdotal examples such as Archuleta's defection, combined
with the GOP's new push for Latino votes and the growth of the
Latino electorate -- both nationally and in Utah -- point to at
least a subtle shift. It appears that neither party can make
assumptions about Latinos any longer. Culturally diverse and
politically complex, they are evolving into a swing vote that in
California and Florida, or Ogden and Salt Lake City, could make all
the difference in November.
"It works both ways," says Tony Yapias, executive director of the
state's Office of Hispanic Affairs. "I've seen [Latino] Democrats go
Republican and Republicans go Democrat."
Archuleta's switch to the GOP is complicated by some personal
politics -- the one-time Democrat is still smarting from being
passed over at the Salt Lake County Democratic Convention for a
House nomination a few years ago. "I was fine as long as I was
putting up signs and distributing literature," she says.
But Archuleta also maintains that she warmed to the Republicans
because of the way they are now actively engaging Latino voters, and
because of their pro-family stand on many issues.
"Hispanics tend to align with Utah values because they are
conservative values," says Marco Diaz, chairman of the Utah
Republican Hispanic Assembly. "Many Hispanics are pro-life,
anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. They support school vouchers
and tuition tax credits. And they own more small businesses than
other ethnic groups as a percentage, so they come down on the side
of lower taxes. These are all Republican issues."
Yet, Latinos tend to lean left when it comes to immigration
reform, workers rights, a higher minimum wage and improved benefits
-- issues traditionally championed by the Democrats.
"I'm very sensitive to issues like immigration and labor laws,"
says University of Utah student Irma Garcia. "So I'm skeptical when
I see Republicans wooing Latino voters. What they say to get elected
and what they say after are often very different."
Immigration has become a particularly hot topic, not only because
of the reforms proposed by the Bush administration -- which
advocates a guest worker program for undocumented individuals -- but
also because of an anti-immigrant backlash that erupted in the Utah
Legislature.
During the past session, GOP lawmakers offered up bills that
would have stripped undocumented adults of their ability to gain a
Utah driver license, use a Mexican consulate card as legal
identification, or access in-state tuition for their children.
All three bills were eventually defeated, for which Republican
Diaz credits the Legislature's GOP leadership. "It turned out to be
a positive because Hispanics who thought the party didn't care saw
they had friends on the Hill," he says.
Democrats don't quite see it that way. State party Chairman
Donald Dunn predicts another round of bills from Republicans next
year targeting illegal immigrants.
The Legislative fracas also spotlighted another story: the coming
together of Democratic and Republican Latinos to help defeat the
bills.
"We're Hispanic before we are anything else," says Sylvia Haro, a
Latina Republican.
But because of the community's diversity -- it is simultaneously
Mexican and Central and South American, professional and blue
collar, LDS and Catholic, first- and third- or fourth-generation --
Latinos will continue to be difficult for politicians to pigeonhole.
And impossible to ignore.
"We're 13 percent of the population nationally and 10 percent in
Utah," says Theresa Martinez, a Salt Lake City Democrat.
"Nationally, Latinos will be a huge factor in key states. In Salt
Lake City and Salt Lake County, we can help define the municipal and
legislative races. We can't be taken for granted any longer."
rguidos@sltrib.com
jbaird@sltrib.com
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