Hispanic Outreach = Bikini Politics, Only the Essentials Covered

• Originally published in The Hotline September 27, 2004 

Copyright 2004 The National Journal Group, Inc.  


HISPANIC OUTREACH

Adam Segal, dir. of the Hispanic Voter Project at Johns Hopkins Univ., is out with an exhaustive study of the efforts
being made to reach out to Hispanic voters. From his summary: "Miami, a home to the bikini, is host to the year's" 1st WH debate and one of the nation's "most unexpected battles for the Hispanic vote. Despite impressive new efforts and financial records broken, the reality is that the campaigns have tailored their Hispanic communications efforts into what can best be described as 'Bikini Politics' -- a series of strategies that cover only the essential parts of the body politic. These advertising and communications efforts focus almost exlusively on a handful of battleground states and reach only a segment of the Hispanic electorate in those states." In '00, Dems made "the tactical mistake and focused insufficient resources on the Miami Hispanic community." This year, "a new battle is underway for Miami that could position" the Dems better than before. The Kerry camp is out with a new "hard-hitting" Spanish-language radio ad, 'Cuba,'" that  hits Bush on his admin's "restrictive Cuba travel policy." Also of note, the New Dem Network, has spent more on Spanish-language TV ads than all GOP orgs. this year and any previous Dem org. in a WH campaign. According to their own numbers, NDN has spent more than what BC'04 and the RNC spect "combined" in '00. The group claims to have spent $3.2M on paid media, including more than $300K in Miami alone. Also of note, "Spanish-speaking voters" in the purple states are "far more likely to actuall see or hear a Hispanic-specific message from the candidates, parties or interest groups this year than those Hispanics who speak only English." English-langauge Hispanic communications "remains a less developed effort than Spanish-language communications efforts" (release, 9/27). The DNC I.E. dept. is up with a new Spanish-language TV ad criticizing Bush's handling of Iraq. The ad is running on Spanish-language TV stations in CO, FL, NV and NM; the party is spending $185K to air the ads in all four states (Denver Post, 9/25).