Scant Hispanic support threatens McCain’s campaign

Is there a disconnect between Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Hispanic voters? An article in The Politico suggests that, despite McCain’s efforts to reach Hispanics in New Mexico and other states, he has a big problem.

According to the article, one top GOP strategist who is now McCain’s pollster has long said that Republicans need 40 percent of the Hispanic vote to win. President Bush reached that goal in winning re-election in 2004. But recent polls, including one released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center, show McCain falling far short of that goal. The Pew poll finds that only 23 percent of Hispanics intend to vote for McCain.

McCain has run two Spanish-language radio ads and one English-language TV ad targeting Hispanics in New Mexico and other states, but polls suggest he isn’t gaining much ground despite those efforts.

“You have to understand in a way that the Republican Party is damaged among Hispanics,” Hessy Fernandez, McCain’s spokeswoman for Hispanic media, told The Politico.

The biggest problem for McCain? The stance the right wing of his party has taken on immigration. Interestingly, this is one issue on which McCain has been fairly moderate, but his party affiliation plagues him.

Read the article by clicking here.