Maryland and Virginia Democrats say Republican legislative policies and heated rhetoric are driving the country’s new arrivals into their party.
Maryland Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, a Democrat, said she has never seen so much energy from the Hispanic community in her 20 years of registering people to vote.
“There is so much unison, ‘We’ve got to get rid of the Republicans,’ ” she said. “It’s not just one measure, it’s on many issues.”
Immigrants, particularly from the burgeoning Hispanic population, have traditionally tilted Democratic. But President Bush, a former border-state governor, had long recognized the group’s growing clout and worked hard to welcome Hispanics into his party. In 2004, as many as 40 percent of Hispanic voters voted for Bush, helping him to a second term.
Eric Gutierrez, of the non-partisan Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, “You would be hard pressed to say that the people feel welcomed now.”
Maryland Democratic Party executive director Derek Walker said his party has received unsolicited requests for support from immigration groups who say they feel unfairly targeted because the opposition has shown a “startling lack of compassion.”
But Maryland Republican Party executive director John Gibson said the GOP registered many immigrants who agree with the party’s stance on taxes and entrepreneurial businesses at the Latino Festival in Baltimore. He says he didn’t see Democratic representatives signing up voters at the festival.
Inspired by the huge demonstrations in D.C. and around the country this spring, Hispanic leaders have started registering to vote the thousands of Latinos in the region, under the banner, “Today we march, tomorrow we vote.”
They say the nationwide campaign is the largest of its kind. They hope to also tap into the nearly quarter-million legal immigrants in Virginia, D.C. and Maryland who will be eligible for citizenship and able to vote by 2008.
Steve Camarota, of the Center for Immigration Studies, said over time immigration can shift the balance of power to the Democrats, but he sees very few races in 2006 where the immigrant vote will make a difference.
Immigrants make up about 7 percent of the eligible voting population in Maryland and Virginia, Camarota said. Even if the immigrants voted as a bloc, a very small percentage of alienated non-immigrants could wipe out any gains.
Camarota cited the May election in Herndon, where the incumbents were voted out for building a center for day laborers.
“The mouse that roars is sometimes just a mouse,” he said.
