Jose La Luz: Latinos for Obama

Latino Voters Key to Obama Win in Battleground States
Jose La Luz Organizing for Change and Obama

The Nov.4th. presidential election is frighteningly close and labor and Latino votes are critical to a win, particularly in some Southwestern swing states. It appears that the election will be decided in fewer than 12 battleground states.
Jose La Luz is a leader in Latinos for Obama and is working in New Mexico and Colorado to organize the critical Latino vote in these battleground states. He is also the director of the Leadership Academy with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.
Latino voters represent 35 percent of the electorate in New Mexico, 11 percent in Colorado, 12 percent in Nevada and 14 percent in Florida. Obama is winning the majority of Latino voters in California. In New Mexico, Obama leads McCain 56 percent to 23 percent among Latino voters. Among non-Latino voters McCain leads 50 percent to 34 percent. Who says that race is not an important issue in this election?
In Colorado, Obama has a 56 percent lead over McCain’s 26 percent among Latinos. And among non-Latino voters Obama has a narrow 45 percent lead over McCain’s 41 percent.
In Nevada, Obama leads McCain at 62 percent to 20 percent among Latinos. Yet McCain leads among non-Latino voters at 46 percent to 37 percent. The ground campaign in Nevada has registered more than 50,000 new Democrats, well enough to carry the state.
Election victories in these states will depend importantly upon Latino voter registration and voter mobilization. In California, where we are confident of an Obama win, we are calling into Nevada. Our task is to call the 150,000 undecided voters . We need to find the 50,000 who might vote for Obama. Then, Spanish speaking volunteers in Nevada go the homes of these individuals to try and convince them to vote for Obama. The telephone lists are kept and identified for get out the vote telephoning near election day.