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Saturday, December 2, 2006 NewImmigrantVoters/EthnicOutreach

 

The Session had to be moved to a larger room because of the presence of an overflow crowd of 26 interested attendees. It was called to order by Chairperson/Moderator Jacqueline E. Romano, Texas Tech Univ., and Congressional Intern, Office of Hon. Charles A. Gonzalez (D, 20th Cong. Dist., TX)

Distillation of key points:

  • Students are an important entre into communities that progressives and progressive candidates want to reach. They should be integrated into campaigns early because they are representative of the communities ethnically, are of the communities, are a link to their families and others and tend to be usefully bilingual. The campuses will have a ready supply of bilingual ambassadors from the campaign to the community.
  • Campaign leadership have to be more sophisticated about the structure of the new immigrant segments of the targeted voter populations and the many different backgrounds and self-identifications that have to be separately reached out to. One size does NOT fit all. To be optimally useful to him or to her, try to reach behind the campaign director’s initial, and possibly superficial, impressions about what ethnic interests, backgrounds and loyalties may make up the relevant voter population. Not ALL Hispanics are Mexican Americans. A dominant minority or a large or at least noticeable African-American or Hispanic or Chinese voter segment in a District or Precinct or Block may, for instance, be masking significant numbers of Native Americans or Portuguese Americans or Arab Americans within that political area, and the “others” if properly reached out to and incorporated into the campaign may be large enough groups to make the difference in a closely contested election.
  • Lasting positive effects and strong organizational relationships enduring beyond the immediate campaigns can grow from carefully recruited and nurtured Precinct and Block leaders. At this level of organization the turf is totally familiar, the ethnic interests and cherished issues to which succeeding candidates will have to be responsive are known and are part of the fabric and not just being freshly learned for each new campaign. Precinct Captains can recruit persons proficient in, as needed, perhaps Urdu, Tagalog, Vietnamese, etc., etc., as their Deputies cultivating the relationships with special communities within their geographic areas.
  • You must KNOW who you are trying to talk to ... in depth. You must get the trust of those you seek to persuade, motivate and involve. They must be able to identify with your candidate, and, if that is not readily directly achievable, they must respect your candidate and identify with you or other parts of the candidate’s campaign and with others who support the candidate with whom they do readily identify and whose popularity with that group is known and can be wrapped around the candidate as with brochures showing the especially ethnically popular senior official with arms literally or figuratively around the shoulders of your candidate. (Brochures with the laying on of the Gov. Gary Locke popularity in the recent Washington State campaign were passed around.)
  • A usefully sophisticated analysis of the demographics of an area of voter involvement may require understanding of the Class/Race interface. Don’t overlook the poor, who may be overshadowed by the wealthier and more articulate members of the same ethnic groups but who may be reached and motivated to participate with, in some campaigns, the winning margins.
  • Voting instructions/sample ballots must be prepared in all relevant minority languages; not just the dominant ethnic components.
  • There was discussion about, but no definitive explanation of, the means for deriving, directly or indirectly, the specific or aggregate ethnic identifications and mapping and information about languages spoken in the student populations that is in the hands of School Districts.
  • A report was made on how deep-pocket Republicans have exploited the swearing in ceremonies for new Americans with booths, banners, congratulatory messages and professional photographs of the new citizens at the Republican booth with Republican Office holders. The implication was that WE should get or grow deeper pockets and be able to afford something competitive or better for the New American marketplace.
  • The suggestion was made, with wider applicability than just to reaching toward the new voter/the ethnic voter, that candidates and campaigns must do more than deny or refute negative charges or aspersions but, on the contrary, should leave the voters with a positive message and the clearest of impressions about who they ARE and what they are FOR.


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