Latinos Give Bush High Job Approval Rating, Poll Shows

Politics: Support could boost GOP in the fall elections, national survey indicates.

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
TIMES STAFF WRITER

August 21 2002

WASHINGTON -- President Bush is enjoying strong job approval ratings among Latinos, a new national poll shows, which may open doors for the GOP in this fall's congressional elections.

Latinos traditionally have been a reliable Democratic constituency. But the survey for the business-backed Latino Coalition found that the Republican president would beat former Vice President Al Gore by 50% to 35% in a hypothetical matchup. A year ago, the group's poll found that Latinos would have preferred Gore, a Democrat, by 54% to 28%.

"Latinos now see the Republican Party as the party of President Bush, not [California Gov.] Pete Wilson and other anti-immigrant Republican leaders," said Roberto de Posada, president of the coalition. "But if Republican candidates do not address issues of concern to Latinos, the door President Bush is opening will disappear."

While Bush garnered a 68% job approval rating, Latinos were almost evenly split on the performance of congressional Republicans, with 42% approving and 39% disapproving. In contrast, congressional Democrats won a 54% job approval rating.

A Republican who does not appear to be helped by Bush's aura is California gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon Jr. Democratic incumbent Gray Davis led Simon, 55% to 21%, among California Latinos in the poll.

De Posada said the congressional GOP is doing better than in last year's poll, in which only 23% of Latinos held a favorable view of Republican lawmakers. However, the wording of the questions in the two polls is different and may invalidate a direct comparison.

This year, the poll found that 44% of Latinos are inclined to vote for a Democrat in the congressional elections, while 32% lean toward the GOP.

The Latino Coalition, which claims 15,000 members nationwide, is trying to position itself as a more conservative alternative to traditional, Democratic-leaning Latino civil rights organizations.

De Posada was director of Hispanic affairs for the Republican National Committee from 1989 to 1992, but is now a registered independent. He said he left the Republican camp because the party was unwilling to make substantive policy changes to appeal to Latinos.

"The Hispanic vote is accessible to those who want to seek it," De Posada said. "The results of this study are clearly a wake-up call for both major political parties. The days of one party writing off this block of voters, and the other party taking them for granted, are over."

He said the support for Bush is the result of the president's efforts to reach out to Latinos and may also reflect an upsurge in patriotic sentiment after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lisa Navarrete, a spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, said some findings of the Latino Coalition poll have been reflected in other surveys. Favorable perceptions of Bush and a sense that the Latino vote is becoming competitive are not new. "What is new is that this is the first poll I've seen that shows Bush ahead in a head-to-head comparison with Gore," she said.

Republicans have launched a major communication campaign in the Latino community this year, featuring a 30-minute television program airing on Spanish-language television in selected markets. De Posada said the new willingness of Latinos to listen to the GOP will prove ephemeral if Republicans don't follow up with policy changes on immigration and other issues.

For instance, while 83% approved of Bush's proposal to grant legal status to 3.5 million undocumented Mexican immigrants, only 53% approved of his overall handling of immigration issues. The legalization plan has been on hold since Sept. 11.

The poll found that immigration and discrimination are the top issues for Latinos, followed by education and jobs. Thirty-one percent said they personally had experienced discrimination in the last year.

There were notable differences on some issues among Latinos who are established in the United States and mainly speak English, and those who are more recent arrivals.

Overall, 64% of Latinos said attitudes of other Americans toward them were unchanged as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks. But among the 35% who noted a change, English-speaking Latinos said by 2 to 1 it was positive, while Spanish speakers reported a negative fallout by nearly the same ratio.

Differences, however, all but vanished on the issue of legalizing undocumented workers, which enjoyed strong support from Latino ethnic groups, including Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens.

On the issue of cultural identity, which has defined many debates about immigration and language, nearly 56% said they felt Latinos should become more a part of American society, even if it means losing some traditions. But 33% said they would prefer to keep their own culture, even if it means staying somewhat separate from other Americans.

The poll was based on interviews with 1,000 Latino adults, about 60% of whom were registered voters. It was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates Opiniones Latinas earlier this month and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. For information about reprinting this article, go to www.lats.com/rights.