Hispanics have eye on GOP senators' Sotomayor vote
WASHINGTON -- Efforts to rivet the attention of the Hispanic community on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings next week could complicate Republicans' political ambitions for next year.
The nation's major Spanish-language television networks, Univision and Telemundo, plan beefed-up coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee's proceedings, which begin Monday. And Latino activist groups are lobbying for confirmation of the nation's first Hispanic justice.
All of that creates "a big problem" for Republicans who want to oppose Sotomayor, says Lionel Sosa, a marketing executive whose GOP clients have included former president George W. Bush and John McCain.
Sosa cautions Republicans against opposing a wave of ethnic pride for the nominee: "If you are Latino, you are for Sotomayor."
Hispanic voters have determined the winner in Florida elections since 2000 and in Nevada since 2004, says Luis Fraga, director of the University of Washington's Diversity Research Institute. He credits divisive debates over immigration with turning Hispanics — who helped elect Bush — away from the GOP.
Republicans must defend Senate seats next year in three states that, according to 2008 Census Bureau estimates, have high percentages of Hispanics: Arizona (29.6%), Utah (11.6%) and Florida (20.6%).
In the past, Hispanics of Central American and Latin American origins might not have identified with Sotomayor because of her roots in Puerto Rico, Fraga says, but now they do.
"There is that pride that the nominee is a Latina," says Estuardo Rodriguez, a director of Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary. The coalition, which includes organizations such as the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, is organizing events in states where the Hispanic population is high and the senators aren't committed to Sotomayor.
Where Sotomayor supporters see ethnic pride, some Republicans, such as Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, suspect bias.
