GOP candidate pitching Hispanics in Spanish

The 2010 race: Campbell pitches Hispanic vote -- en espanol
SFGATE.COM

2010 gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell, a Republican, may be the only candidate in the bunch who's seriously courting Hispanic voters. Appearing Thursday before the San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he addressed 50 business leaders for the first 10 minutes in fluent Spanish -- while explaining his accent was Uruguayan, because that's where he learned the langauge. Then he asked them, "con permiso," to switch to English for a detailed budget discussion -- complete with a nine-page handout.

Whew.
That makes Campbell the only one of the five gubernatorial hopefuls/possibles to speak Spanish fluently -- and in California, where the largest growing voter block is Hispanic, no small thing. Attendees like group leader Olga Enciso Smith gave Campbell high marks for taking questions and talking up issues like trade and small business concerns.

We'll also note -- and continue to remind the other candidates --that Campbell remains so far the only one of the crop who is detailing his own proposals regarding the current state budget meltdown. On Friday, Campbell released a proposal suggesting a basic change in policy to better encourage research and innovation could reap millions for the University of California and CSU systems in the area of intellectual property rights.

So far, deafening silence from the rest: Republicans Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, and Democrats Gavin Newsom and undeclared (though viewed as likely candidate)State Attorney General Jerry Brown.