| A few articles came out yesterday describing some of the demographics of the election last Tuesday. Both are positive in terms of the Democratic coalition, regionally, statewide, and nationally, going forward.
First, unsurprisingly, Latino voters shifted towards Democrats this year. Nationally, this is likely due to the James Sensenbrenners and Duncan Hunters of the world attacking immigrants. (Oh, yeah, I'm going to love seeing Duncan Hunter in the presidential debates).
Anger over anti-immigrant rhetoric helped fuel a shift in the Latino vote to Democrats, damaging Republican hopes of luring this fast-growing population into its fold, Latino activists and political analysts said Thursday.
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Analysts said that Republican attempts to use immigration as a wedge issue to galvanize conservative voters backfired by instead rousing more Latinos to vote. Those results were particularly apparent in Arizona, "ground zero" of the immigration debate, where several Republican immigration hawks were defeated, analysts said.
"[Republicans] have done long-term permanent damage to their brand with this community," said Simon Rosenberg, president of the Washington, D.C.-based New Democrat Network. (LAT 11/10/06)
And who else would the immigration message of the Republicans ("GO HOME!") offend? Well there's a wide range of groups, especially here in the cultural mish-mash of California. One group is California's Asian-Americans. In the SF Bay area, they voted strongly in favor of Phil and the Dem ticket.
[As for the] governor's race, the Bay Area's Asian-American voters favored Democratic Party candidate Phil Angelides ? about 67 percent ? while Los Angeles County voters were again nearly evenly split between Angelides and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to the poll.(Oak Trib 11/10/06)
It's also important to note the role of Asian-Americans in John Chiang's victory over Tony Strickland in the controller's race. Given the vast IE resources supporting Strickland, grassroots and identity politics played a big role in our victory in that race. The state party needs to encourage outreach in the Asian-American community. We need to cultivate a diverse range of leaders, and encourage further involvement in state and local politics. |
