Colorado GOP at a crossroads with Hispanic voters

Engaging prospect for Latinos, GOP
By Tina Griego, Denver Post, 06/18/2009

The Republican National Hispanic Assembly, Colorado chapter, held a breakfast meeting downtown Tuesday at which state GOP chairman Dick Wadhams told a story.

After the 2008 election, he said, a few people told him he needed to gather some "high-powered" Republicans to select the party's next candidates for governor and U.S. Senate. "I'm not even sure who those high-powered people would be," Wadhams replied and rattled off Republican officeholders and party leaders and the thousands of stateRepublicans who participated in the election. "I asked these folks, 'Where do you want me to draw the line?' "

He said he told them that, in fact, he would be convening meetings to decide upon the state's future Republican leaders and that those meetings are called precinct caucuses and county and state assemblies.

What the party will look like, who will lead it, Wadhams told the Hispanic group, is a debate that must take place across Colorado. This is the time, he said, quoting conservative columnist Bill Kristol, "for a thousand Republicans to bloom."

"Especially in the aftermath of the 2008 election," Wadhams said. "I think it's very important that we have an urgent discussion within the party about the future."

Wadhams is no dummy. He knows how much this group wants to be included in shaping that future. He also knows the Republican Party — or its demagogues — has alienated many Latinos on illegal immigration and, more recently, on U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Should Wadhams have needed a reminder about the work it will take to woo Latinos to the party, the meeting offered one. Take away the few party staffers and guests and, by my count, his audience of Republican Hispanics numbered 12.

All one had to do last year was attend a Republican rally and look at the crowds: white, aging, unrepresentative even of this state's population, which is 70 percent white. That's a house sitting on a shrinking foundation.

Simple numbers tell the story. Latinos are the nation's fastest-growing minority. The Obama/Biden ticket won the national Latino vote by a ratio of more than 2-to-1 and the Latino youth vote by 4-to-1. In Colorado, Latinos chose the Democratic presidential ticket over the Republican, 61 percent to 38 percent.

Hispanics are swing voters, and the 2008 exit polls revealed that too. Take the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico and, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, Colorado is the only place where the Republican presidential ticket fared better among Latino voters than it did in 2004 and the Democratic ticket fared worse.

"There's always been potential, and the potential is still there," former state Rep. Joe Nunez says. "There are a lot more Hispanic Republicans out there than people realize."

The Hispanic Republican of Colorado tends to be viewed as an oddity, a minority among both Republicans and Hispanics, welcomed by each group, but, at times, not embraced by either. This is a fact, not a plea for sympathy, which Republican Hispanics are not seeking and do not want.

They are, despite this, an optimistic group. It is hope that fuels their constant declaration that "most Hispanics are Republicans; they just don't know it, yet." Political philosophy or conservative social values or both draw Latinos to the party, says Frank Tijerina Jr., 40, and RNHA's new state chairman. What Latinos offer in return is "a new perspective of family, hope and inclusiveness."

"Over the years," Tijerina says, "there's been this discussion (among Republican Hispanics): 'We're here. Is that big tent ever going to happen?' Well, that big tent has to happen or the party will become insignificant, and we will become independents."

It's impossible these days to have a discussion about politics and ethnicity without drawing the accusation of pandering and to this Tijerina says, "we have to be part of the equation, part of the dialogue. Our voice needs to be heard. Call it what you want. I call it relationship-building. I call it outreach."

That outreach is already underway. The group is recruiting young Latinos and has a new staffer who will work college campuses. The state party is building and organizing a network of Latinos likely to vote Republican and wants to start RNHA chapters in every county.

"It's not going to be an easy road back," Wadhams told the group, but one way is education. Latinos consistently identify education as a top concern and Democrats, he argued, have dropped the ball on reform.

"I also think we can win Hispanics by returning to our core principles of limited government, personal responsibility and strong national security."

And, Tijerina added later, the debate on illegal immigration "has to be conducted with dignity and respect."

If you meet again next year at the same time, in the same room, what do you hope to see, I asked Tijerina. Seventy-five, maybe 100 Republican Hispanics, he said, and of those at least 40 will be young people. That's the future he sees.

Tina Griego writes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach her at 303-954-1416 or tgriego@denverpost.com.