Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Former Rep. Greg Patterson, the “Espresso Pundit,” has an ongoing thesis that the Hispanic community is about to, en masse, become a bullet-proof Republican consituency. For example, one of the pieces of proof he offered was that an employee at Stan Barnes’s firm was Hispanic. The first thing I thought of when I saw that one was that I have a friend at work that is an Evangelical that is a hard core John Edwards fanatic. This must mean that the Evangelicals are about to become solidly Democratic for the next two and a half centuries.

His latest piece of evidence is that an organization called the Southern Arizona Hispanic Leadership Council endorsed Jon Kyl last week. On the surface, a Hispanic organization endorsing a Republican Senator might be a big deal. However, digging around a little bit would show that this is no suprise what so ever, and means a heck of a lot less than people like Patterson would think.

Well, it really doesn’t even take that much digging. A visit to the website has this, right there on the front page:

The Southern Arizona Hispanic Leadership Council was formed in 2005 by a group of active community leaders. Partipants are recruited individually with a focus on hispanic Republicans and Independents. The goal of the organization is to educate the hispanic community about the shared values of the Republican party and to encourage hispanic Republican leaders to run for office.

So, um, the group is a Republican organization. Not just an organization that happens to have a lot of Republicans, but one that wants to elect Republicans. They even have those little flag draped elephants on their brochure. A Republican party organization endorsed a Republican Senator who has a pretty strong lead in the polls. Stop the presses.

Anyone who thinks that the formation of this organization is some sort of “sea change” hasn’t been too observant of our local politics. There has always been a significant number of Hispanics in the Republican party here. Tucson’s only Hispanic mayor was a fellow named Esteban Ochoa, a Republican. The folks that formed the Republican party in Arizona Territory were, hard as it is to believe now, Hispanic Republicans in Tucson. Many of those families, such as the Jacome and Laos families, are still Republican and form a significant part of what is sometimes refered to as la crema, a sort of unofficial Hispanic gentry in Tucson.

Every Hispanic family, even the most politically minded liberal ones, has at least one Republican. This would only indicate a major change in politics if it was something new, but it has been going on for generations.

The interesting thing is that in the past, Republican arguments about Hispanics changing parties have centered around social issues. The SAHLC makes no mention of social issues on their site, and their pro-Kyl press release made only a cursory mention of “common sense values,” whatever the heck that means. Their board consists mostly of business people who “values voters” in the Republican party would regard as part of the problem in their party.

One of the people on their board is a supporter of Raúl Grijalva. I guess this wouldn’t be such a big deal, except for the fact that she’s the chairperson of the organization, Lea Márquez Peterson. I’m not sure what that says, either that the Republicans have such total schlubs running in CD 7 that not even their own activists support them, or that maybe this “earthquake” won’t happen for a long time. By the way, Márquez Peterson’s family, despite being in that “bullet proof” Republican group: small buisinesspeople, are Democrats. (Full disclosure: Márquez Peterson was active with SUAB when I was with that organization at the U of A, and I’ve played soccer with her brother, Edmund Márquez. I’m a bit of a hack, so I probably tripped him more than once.)

Another person on the board is Lillian Lopez-Grant. Lopez-Grant has been involved in Republican politics for years in this town, so she isn’t exacly an indicator of anything “new.” However, she is probably the only person on that board that has anything approaching organizational muscle. But, even she has been dissed by the local Republican establishment, most recently by Councilmember Kathleen Dunbar in the last election. As much as the Republicans like to talk about inclusion, things like this are also noticed by the community.

Even though you have candidates like Dunbar who refuse to campaign in Hispanic neighborhoods, the biggest impediment for organizations like the SAHLC is their own Republican primary voters. Take the 2004 primary in CD 7 for example. You had Lou Muñoz, a local businessman, against Joe Sweeney, a racist and certifiable moron. So, instead of voting for the level headed candidate, CD 7 Republicans chose, by a two-to-one margin, the race baiting Sweeney. What can one do but ask if people wanted to vote for Sweeney because he was a racist, or against Muñoz because of his race? One can also look at the Republican primary for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2002, where Tom Horne ran a campaign that asked if Latino Republican incumbent Jaime Molera could be trusted to make sure that kids learned English. He was rewarded with a victory.

But, keep up the wishful thinking.