Inside Obama's Hispanic strategy

Inside Obama's Hispanic strategy
By: Jonathan Martin
May 14, 2009 04:20 AM EST
POLITICO

TEMPE, Arizona – To get an idea of just how much effort the Obama administration is putting into retaining the support of the Hispanic community, click on the homepage of Eduardo Sotelo.

Don’t know who that is?

Top Obama aides do, and they’ve already had the president speak twice to the nationally syndicated radio talk show powerhouse better known as “Piolin.”

Last week, they brought the Southern California-based talker into the Oval Office for a sit-down that went largely unnoticed – except, that is, to the millions of listeners in the 52 markets where Piolin is heard.

“We need to be able to communicate through radio and obviously you’ve got the biggest listenership so we’ve got to make sure you’re involved,” Obama said in the interview.

It was just one example of a relentless courtship of the nation’s largest minority group and a pivotal voting bloc that numerous aides say has become a near-obsession of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

After initially facing questions about whether he could win the Hispanic vote, Obama won it by 36 percentage points against a pro-reform Republican – and his staff is determined to do it again in 2012.

Obama officials are focused on the fast-growing interior West and especially this state, which they believe the president lost only because it is John McCain’s home. With states such as Arizona adding congressional districts after the 2010 census – and thus electoral votes – turning the West into a Democratic bulwark could ensure a lock on the presidency, Obama’s strategists believe.

And they're backing it up with personal attention from Obama, who made his second trek to Arizona in barely four months in office. The president addressed Arizona State University graduates in a mostly full football stadium Wednesday, winning cheers from a crowd of about 60,000 when he went off-script at one point to pay homage to Latino icon Cesar Chavez in his commencement speech.

Yet even as the Obama charm offensive continues, the administration is faced with twin political challenges that ultimately may threaten any good will they’ve won from Hispanics – how he handles immigration reform and his first Supreme Court nomination. Hispanic leaders say their voters are watching.

“He will ultimately be judged by the Hispanic community on what he does for the weakest and most vulnerable,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the veteran Chicago Democrat, referring to the issue on which he’s become a national leader, comprehensive immigration reform.

Gutierrez said he and fellow Hispanic officials appreciate the wooing and White House invites, but want action on the issue of providing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. And he doesn’t mince words about what he sees as White House foot-dragging on the issue, which proved difficult to tackle even in better economic times.

“If Rahm thinks he can get away with not doing anything on immigration and still have the support of Latino voters, it won’t get done,” said Gutierrez, who has had a long and at times contentious relationship with his fellow Chicago pol.


But Emanuel aside, Gutierrez said he believes Obama is “reluctant” on the issue and that little progress has been made since the president had the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the White House in March.

Obama pledged at his 100 Days press conference to work with Gutierrez and another member on immigration reform, but Gutierrez quipped: “That’s why you shouldn’t have term limits.”

“Because if you don’t have term limits, and you’ve been here for nine terms, you don’t get all lit up because the president mentioned your name at a press conference,” he said. “You look for what substantially has changed given his comment.”

Janet Murguia, president of La Raza, said she has been invited to the White House for a series of conferences and meetings this year but was still waiting for a clearer sign on Obama’s intentions on immigration.

“There’s going to be growing frustration if we don’t see some tangible and real signals that this is going to be carried out in earnest this fall,” Murguia said, suggesting that Obama needed to give a speech or somehow make clear this summer that he wanted Congress to act.

Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also lavished praise on the White House effort to be inclusive but was equally candid: “I think they genuinely want to do [immigration reform] but they genuinely want to do other things a lot more.”

Obama himself conceded to Piolin on the radio last week that “we’ve been delayed a little because of the economic crisis” in addressing immigration. He said it was his “hope is that we can get something moving this year.”

That is, of course, different than getting an actual bill signed into law this year.

A senior administration official recognized that Gutierrez is “pushing very hard” on the issue and acknowledged its significance to the Latino community.

“The immigration issue tends to suck up all the oxygen,” said the official. “But our other major priorities, especially the economy but also health care, are also Latino issues.”

And while getting an immigration bill done isn’t the only thing weighing heavily on the minds of Hispanics, it’s not just the economy and health care. The community is making no secret of their strong desire to see the first Hispanic justice appointed to the Supreme Court, and the Hispanic Caucus has sent Obama a letter urging him to do just that.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, a California Democrat and member of the House leadership, said picking an Hispanic to replace David Souter would spark an “off-the-charts” reaction among Hispanics.

And if the president passed over the community?

“Then people would say the game is still played by the same people,” said Becerra, who himself nearly joined Obama’s Cabinet. “The game has not been changed. People would have every right to say that the doors of opportunity haven’t been completely opened.”


Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz), who made a point to note his support for Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, said “it would just build up [anticipation] for the next appointment.”

“The urgency would be greater than it is now,” Grijalva said.

Murguia said plainly that it would be “a real opportunity for him to solidify his support with the Latino community.”

White House officials are reluctant to discuss the high court pick, but they note that this isn’t likely to be the president’s only appointment. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said this week that lobbying wouldn’t be helpful.

While anxious on immigration and the court pick, Obama’s Hispanic allies in Congress and advocacy groups generally offer praise on what they see as an unprecedented effort to include them – and not just on traditional Latino or minority issues.

It’s a point of pride for the White House.

“We’re not just doing this on the obvious conversations, but in every major policy conversation,” said a senior administration official.

Hispanics, the official noted, were at the table for meetings on the budget, the stimulus, health care and for a fiscal summit. And a major education speech was delivered before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Another top White House aide pointed out that when the president travels, they don’t just include Hispanic leaders in the intimate meetings set up before and after events in the usual places like California but in rust belt states like Ohio and Indiana, too.

Obama aides have put special emphasis on catering to the Spanish-language media.

They held a town hall meeting on the H1N1 virus earlier this month entirely in Spanish (except for the president).

When they announced their easing of the sanctions on Cuba last month, it was done by in Spanish and English by a bilingual NSC official.

All the daily press releases and advisories also go out in Spanish.

Obama has been interviewed on a variety of Hispanic radio and TV programs, including Univision, Telemundo and CNN En Espanol. Aides also note that the president has twice used his prime-time press conferences to call on Spanish-media representatives.

More quietly, aides such as Emanuel, energy and climate czar Carol Browner, domestic policy chief Melody Barnes and cabinet secretaries have also conducted briefings. And on the day of the State of the Union speech, newscasters from the Spanish-language TV stations got their own preview from Vice President Joe Biden.

“For many it’s the news of choice,” said Becerra of the Spanish-language channels.

When Piolin asked Obama if he had the votes in Congress on immigration reform, the president was candid.

“Probably not yet,” he said

But when it comes time to rally support for the bill, Obama said he would need the talk show host’s help.
“You can count on me,” Piolin assured.


THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

February 17, 2009

INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT

BY EDDIE “PIOLÍN” SOTELO, RADIO


Via Telephone


1:48 P.M. MSTTHE PRESIDENT: Hello.

Q Hello.

THE PRESIDENT: Who am I speaking with?

Q Piolín.

THE PRESIDENT: Piolín, my friend, this is President Barack Obama.

Q How are you doing? (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: I am doing good. I promised you that I would be on the show when I was President, and here I am on the show. (Laughter.)

Q You promised me that you were going to be in the studio –

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven’t gone to Los Angeles yet, but I should get credit for keeping my promise this way.

Q Oh, yes, yes. (Applause.) Yes, but we’re waiting for you because we are celebrating together. (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: How have you been?

Q Great, great, Mr. President. We have Mr. President Barack Obama with us. And thank you, Mr. President, for taking the time to speak with us today. And you make history — we’re so proud. I know you are the President for everybody.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Well, you know, it was wonderful being on your program when I was running. And now I want to make sure that we continue to reach out because you have so many listeners and I think that it’s so important that the Latino community, the Spanish-speaking community, continues to stay involved in politics.

We’ve got a very tough economy and we just signed a stimulus bill today that’s going to put people back to work and provide health care to people who don’t have it. We signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Now legal immigrants are able to get health care for the first time, which is something that the Latino community had been arguing for, for almost a decade.

And so I think we’re making real progress, but we’re going to have to keep on making sure that all of you are involved as much as possible.

Q Mr. President, you know, I just want to begin by saying now, today is an exciting today. Congratulations on your accomplishment.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

Q And how soon can we expect to see the positive effect of the stimulus package?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that right away what you’re going to start seeing is, first of all, states and local governments, they’re going to be able to keep people in their jobs. There was — the budgets are so bad at the state level that people who were teaching in schools, or police officers, or firefighters, a lot of people were going to be fired from their state jobs. And so we’re going to be able to keep those jobs open.

We’re also going to be making investments and rebuilding roads and bridges and school construction, and that’s going to put a lot of people to work, especially people who are in the construction industries. With the housing market in such bad shape, they’ve been out of work. Now, hopefully, some of these construction jobs will become available again. It will probably take six months to a year before we start seeing a big impact, but at least we’ve now gotten the process moving so that we can start doing a lot better than we’ve been doing over the last several months.

Q So that means, Mr. President, that now that you have signed the stimulus package, I’m going to receive a raise, a pay raise?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, the — you, Piolín, are already making so much money that you probably won’t get a pay raise. (Laughter.) You know, but for people who aren’t as rich as you, I think that they’ve got a good chance of getting help –

Q I’ve been playing, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Well, and the other thing is, you know, the — a lot of people who’ve been laid off of their jobs, they need unemployment insurance. And what this bill does is it makes sure that they keep on getting unemployment insurance. It means that they have a easier time keeping their health care, even if they’ve lost their job. So it’s really going to provide a lot of relief to people who need it.

Q Mr. President, how will the stimulus package help persons who are losing their homes, and how will it benefit those who want to buy a home for the first time?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s actually a separate piece of legislation that we’re going to be announcing tomorrow. And the key there is to make sure that we work with the banks and the homeowners to try to reduce the monthly payments that they make. And so I’ll be announcing that program, but it’s something that should help a lot of families who are making their payments, but are having a much, much tougher time because home values have gone down so drastically. So we’ll have an entire separate home program — housing program that we’re going to be announcing tomorrow.

Q Thanks a lot, Mr. President. We have Mr. President Barack Obama with us. And let me tell you this, Mr. President; I’m sure you know, but it’s important to let you know once again, we make a big contribution to our country from all across art, music, labor. And most important a lot of Hispanics are in Iraq defending the United States, even without being American citizen.

THE PRESIDENT: Right.

Q We need your help.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, as I’ve said every time I’ve been on the show, Piolín, we’re going to make sure that we begin the process of dealing with the immigration system that’s broken. We’re going to start by really trying to work on how to improve the current system so that people who want to be naturalized, who want to become citizens, like you did, that they are able to do it; that it’s cheaper, that it’s faster, that they have an easier time in terms of sponsoring family members.

And then we’ve got to have comprehensive immigration reform. Now, you know, we need to get started working on it now. It’s going to take some time to move that forward, but I’m very committed to making it happen. And we’re going to be convening leadership on this issue so that we can start getting that legislation drawn up over the next several months.

Q Mr. President, is there some sort of network we could establish to be in communication regarding the comprehensive immigration reform, and personally what can I do?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you know, the key thing right now is obviously we’ve got to make sure that all the people who are involved in immigration reform issues, that they sit down together and they start thinking about how we’re going to approach this problem. Politically it’s going to be tough. It’s probably tougher now than it was, partly because of the fact that the economy has gotten worse. So what I’ve got to do is I’ve got to focus on the economy, I’ve got to focus on housing, and make sure that people feel a little bit more secure; at the same time, get the various immigrant rights groups together and have them start providing some advice in terms of what strategies we’re going to pursue in Congress.

Q That’s one of the things, Mr. President, I would like to happen. I’m working for media and knowing that our people worked so much. And, you know, they came out from the houses, going to work — scary because they don’t even know if they’re going to be deported. And can we try to establish like a signal, like a network — for example, I like what you did with the financial — financial people, that you set it up, for example — the newspaper from LA, is part of that — those groups of advisors, financial advisors that you put — I like the idea. How can we have kind of like the thing where I can receive information? What do we need to do so we can receive a comprehensive reform?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we’ve got some wonderful people on my White House staff who are working on this issue on an ongoing basis. And what we’ll do is we’ll make sure that one of those people can appear on your program on a regular basis, giving you information about what we’re doing. And hopefully at some point you’ll be able to come visit us at the White House.

Q Any time, Mr. President. And I would like to be there when you sign the comprehensive immigration reform.

THE PRESIDENT: All right. Well, thank you so much, Piolín. It’s great to talk to you.

Q Mr. President, you know we are close friends and you know that I have your BlackBerry phone number and you have mine. (Laughter.) So keep in touch.

THE PRESIDENT: You know I will. Thank you so much. Tell everybody in the studio I said hello. I had a great time when I visited you, and everybody there was so nice. And you were very nice to my wife, as well, when she was on the program. So thank you so much, Piolín. Take care.

Q Take care, Mr. President. You know, you are in our prayers. You have our support, and we want to help in any way we can.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you, guys. Bye-bye.

END 1:57 P.M. MST