Latino vote 'up for grabs,' could swing election

WASHINGTON -- The battle for the Hispanic vote is on.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama plan back-to-back appearances Saturday before the annual meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. The non-partisan group represents more than 5,500 officeholders and the fastest-growing voting bloc in the nation.

In a report issued Thursday, the group, known as NALEO, predicted a record-breaking turnout of at least 9.2 million Hispanic voters this fall. They could be key to winning swing states such as New Mexico, Florida and Colorado.

Both candidates have strong selling points for Hispanic voters, but neither has closed the deal, backers say. Traditionally Democratic, Hispanic voters helped give George W. Bush the presidency in 2000, when exit polls showed Bush won 35% of their votes. In 2004, he improved that number to 40%.

This year, the Hispanic vote is "very much up for grabs," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who supports McCain.

"Latinos really represent the political swing vote," agreed NALEO President Adolfo Carrio´n, a Democrat who is for Obama.

Hispanic voters were crucial to McCain's victory in the Republican presidential nomination contest, the NALEO report on voting patterns found. McCain won 54% of the Hispanic votes in the Florida primary, the report said, helping him win a decisive contest in the nomination fight.

Republican officials at the conference said the Arizona senator still needs to convince Hispanics that he hasn't backed away from his support for immigration reform and that he's willing to wind down the war in Iraq.

"We're tired of the war," said Luz Urbáez Weinberg, a Republican commissioner in Aventura, Fla.

Her constituents resent hearing about schools, roads and bridges being built in Iraq, she said. "The very things that are being implemented over there are missing here," she said.

Fernando Treviño, a school board member from East Chicago, Ill., says he wants McCain's assurance that he hasn't abandoned his support for a path to citizenship for the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. "He needs to state his position," Treviño said.