Hispanic Market Weekly
Transcription
Hispanic Market Weekly
The Business of Reaching Hispanic Voters WE ARE NOW CANDIDATO USA A Letter From The Publisher Dear Reader: Faced with a trademark legal challenge and protracted litigation by the publishers of the newspaper and website ¨Politico,¨ we have reluctantly chosen to change the name of our publication, from “La Política” to “CandidatoUSA.” The publishers of Politico - launched in January by Washington D.C.-based Allbritton Communications, also owners of seven ABC television affiliates and three other news channel outlets - claim La Politica infringes on their trademark. The name change odyssey began, without our knowledge, on July 11 when Jim VanderHei, Politico’s co-founder and editor, called me. He had heard of our plans to launch La Política and wanted to know more. I gave him details of our preparations to launch an electronic trade newsletter on the business of reaching Hispanic voters. At his suggestion, we agreed to talk again after the launch of La Política on November 5 to explore avenues of collaboration between Politico and our publication. We did launch on November 5. But next day, instead of a call from VanderHei, we received a two-page aggressive and threatening letter from Politico’s attorney demanding that we “cease and desist” from the use of the La Política name because they hold a registered trade mark in the term “The Politico.” I, of course, rapidly called VanderHei and sent him the following e-mail message: From: Arturo Villar [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2007 9:54 AM To: '[email protected]' Subject: Urgent; Please call me Jim: I left you a phone message yesterday wanting to talk about La Politica. When you called me on July 11 to inquire about La Politica, I shared our plans for the mewsletter, and we talked about exploring ways to work together after our launch in the fall. We did launch this past Monday, and instead I have received a letter from your attorney We are studying the matter and we need more time to consider the business implication of your attorney's demand Please call me at 305 785-2784 to discuss this and our cooperation plans. Saludos, Arturo No response from VanderHei. I later offered, to no avail, to travel to D.C. to find an amicable solution to Politico’s complaint and our resulting predicament. The Business of Reaching Hispanic Voters So, just at the start of what we believed would be a dedicated march towards journalistic excellence, we at La Política have had to dedicate priceless time and resources to seek dialogue, negotiations and alternatives under the threat of a costly lawsuit. As a result, we have given in to the power of big money and decided to change our name to CandidatoUSA For many of our friends, this is yet another chapter in the long history of bullying intransigence by big media companies against independent start-ups. But we are no threat to Politico. We are geared to totally different audiences. We have offered to guarantee in any manner or form that we will not infringe on their use of that name. And we are honorable people, as demonstrated by 10 years of independent uninterrupted weekly publication of our flagship title, Hispanic Market Weekly. I cannot say goodbye to La Política. Certainly not to the idea and purpose behind it. Not even good luck or good riddance to those who deny us the right to use it. So, with CandidatoUSA we will continue to offer our readers the why and the how of attracting the Latino voter. Our readers, and the advertisers who want to reach them, will know we are fine, growing, thriving and dedicated to serving them with expertise, professionalism and dignity. There’s only six days until the next Spanish-language presidential debate, 64 days til Super Tuesday, and 48 weeks til elections. As I write this, candidates in countless state and local elections are making plans, plotting strategies, raising money and reaching out to Hispanic voters. The really important thing is that we will be here to tell you how they are doing it. Don’t miss it. Arturo Villar Publisher 305.448.5838 [email protected] December 3, 2007 Vo l u m e 1 Issue 5 The Business of Reaching Hispanic Voters POLITICAL MARKETING Candidates Look For Amigos Enter the Latino social networking site MiGente.com and at first glance it seems suspiciously like an online pickup joint. Turn, however, to Senator Barack Obama's profile page and you encounter a straightforward political appeal. The Senator has more than 43,000 "friends." Roughly half were added in the first week of October when the profile was posted. Community Connect, which owns MiGente.com, also has social networking sites for African Americans, Asian Americans, gays and lesbians. "Historically, politicians tend to either take these groups for granted or overlook them completely. For me it was a wholehearted endorsement that, not only are these groups interested in the political dialogue, they are proactively wanting to get involved and hear from the campaign" says Kay Madotti, marketing vice president for Community Connect. "It really dispelled these myths that minorities may not be as interested in the political process." Politicians tend to either take these groups for granted or overlook them Peter Leyden, director of the San Francisco-based Institute of New Politics, which recently issued a report on social networking as a campaign tool, warns candidates to ignore social networking at their own peril. When it comes to social networking as a campaign tool, much of the focus has been on MySpace and Facebook, where practically all the presidential candidates have a presence. But, aside from MiGente, there are a number of specifically Latino social networking sites includng MyBatanga, MyGrito as well Highlights: 4 Univision Forum Poses Unique Challenges For Republicans. as MySpace en Español. All of these are smaller than MySpace and Facebook. And on these Latino sites the presence of presidential candidates is sparser. Obama currently has a presence at Batanga and MyGrito, in addition to MiGente. Senators Hillary Clinton is present on MyGrito along with another four Democratic candidates. Her campaign plans to be up on Batanga before the end of the year. Governor Richardson is on MySpace en Español. Richardson’s campaign's online director, Joaquín Guerra, strongly believes in the power of social networking. Yet Guerra also has plenty of experience of personally knocking on doors to register voters and seek support for specific candidates. "Nothing will ever replace that person-to-person contact. That is always going to be the best form of voter contact. this is just another tool that complements that." It is a particularly effective way to reach young people, says Leyden. To Clinton campaign spokesperson, Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, they are young people who "might not follow politics on a regular basis.” And it is a two-way street. "We have aggregated the young adult bilingual, bicultural Latino consumer in a pretty significant way" says Rick Marroquín, chief marketing officer of Batanga. "And we thought it was important to offer back to them the opportunity to interact directly with the people seeking office." Irene Audet owns MyGrito and this summer launched a separate section called TuGrito that is dedicated to covering the presidential election. Like MiGente and Batanga, candidates have a profile page and collect friends. But unlike these two sites, TuGrito has a dedicated section where users post political questions that are answered by presidential campaign staff. TuGrito generates some six percent of the entire site's monthly traffic of roughly 50,000 visitors. 4 Hispanic Voter Outreach From On High 9 This Week, Wth Henry Bonilla The December 9th Forum could prove a tough hurdle for GOP candidates. 8 California May Split Electoral College Vote A ballot initiative seeks to salvage some of the Golden State's Electoral College votes. www.CandidatoUSA.com The Roman Catholic Church aggressively promotes immigration reform. Interview with former Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 And even in the case of the much larger MiGente, Obama's 43,000 friends account for a tiny fraction of the site's million and a half active users. But, that's enough to attract the notice and potential advertising interest of several presidential campaigns as well as both the Democratic and Republican national committees. But, no deals have been set in stone. Leyden argues the same is true of social networking as a campaign tool: "It is not a done deal. It is not a figured out situation. It is very amorphous. And it changes rapidly by the week." MEDIA WATCH Univision Forum Poses Unique Challenges For Republicans The initial reluctance in September of Republican presidential candidates to participate in Univision's presidential forum led to widespread criticism. But Al Cardenas, former Florida GOP chair and current Mitt Romney supporter, says the charge is unfair. He insists the campaign never told Univision they would not attend, never even told the network they were unlikely to attend. "But then there was a barrage of criticism that Republican candidates were anti-Hispanic, that they weren't willing to do a minority network debate. And it just wasn't true" says Cardenas. "For us to be labeled as not being willing to do something or turning our backs on the Hispanic community was not only mean-spirited but inaccurate." Regardless of its cause, the delays may end up working marginally in the GOP's favor. The Univision forum will now take place closer to the Florida pri- www.CandidatoUSA.com mary date in January. This is convenient given that the Democratic presidential candidates are not campaigning in Florida as part of an ongoing dispute between the state party chapter and national headquarters. But the Univision forum also presents significant challenges for Republicans, especially coming hard upon the CNN/YouTube debate when the candidates, save Senator John McCain, battled to see who could more harshly criticize existing immigration policy. There is a lot of confusion on the Republican side "There is a lot of confusion on the Republican side and primarily that has been the result of the very hot controversy over immigration" says former Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla. Simon Rosenberg, president of the influential Washington, D.C.-based New Democratic Network, concurs. "The party is fighting itself over what is the right strategy - the Tancredo strategy or the Bush strategy. And it is unresolved." For prominent Austin-based GOP consultant Reggie Bashur, the first step for the Republicans to secure the Hispanic vote “is to go out and ask for it. To go out to the community and talk to the people and ask for it. You got to have a dialogue before you can ask for something." And Spanish-language media giant Univision is one of the best places to go and start a dialogue with the Hispanic community. But, will the opening lines of that dialogue include shrill language on immigration? "I would venture to say you are going to hear the same Fred Thompson you hear everywhere else" says Carlos Curbelo, a consultant to the former Senator's campaign. "I do understand that there are sensitivities attached to certain words and that all candidates should be aware of that. But the bottom line is to be honest, frank with the Hispanic community. To not pander." The candidates will be happy if, as in Univision's September Democratic forum, the questions shift from immigration to foreign policy. Hispanics represent between eight and 10 percent of likely Florida Republican primary voters. And this group includes a large contingent of Cuban American conservatives who will respond well to the entirely foreseeable attacks by the candidates on Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. It won't be at all difficult to get the Republican candidates to say an unkind word about either the Cuban or Venezuelan president. Much harder and much rarer will be hearing a Republican presidential candidate demonstrate any compassionate conservatism towards "illegals." Rosenberg says "This is not going to be an easy debate for them." HISPANIC VOTER OUTREACH Hispanic Voter Outreach From On High Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony on Sunday led the 76th annual procession in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe through the streets of East Los Angeles. The theme of this year ’s mile-long parade: Mother without Borders: Bringing Down the Walls of Injustice. It’s no surprise the Los Angeles Archdiocese picked immigration as the 4 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 www.CandidatoUSA.com 5 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 theme of the procession. Over the past year, Archbishop Mahony has emerged nationally as an outspoken advocate of immigration reform. And what he says carries weight. He heads the country’s largest archdiocese, comprising five million souls, more than half of whom are Hispanic. Last year, he urged his flock to disobey the harsh immigration reform bill if it passed and was instrumental in getting thousands to turn out for massive protest rallies. “He had a galvanizing effect on the opposition to that bill,” notes Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Catholic Church has historically held a tradition of helping immigrants, whether through providing legal services, housing or English classes. “We’re largely a church of immigrants who came into a Protestant culture,” says Thomas P. Rausch, a professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. “It’s many of our congregants.” But since the amnesty law of 1986, the Church has taken on immigration as a political fight, too. It lobbies on the issue on Capitol Hill and state legislatures, and pushes grassroots efforts in the streets. The Catholic Church has stepped up to it The Church's active stance has bolstered immigrant-rights groups, giving them moral support and credibility. Erique Morones, founder and president of Border Angels, an organization that aids migrants in the desert, recently met with a representative of the Vatican. "The Catholic Church has stepped up to it," he says. "It's a very important role." But the Sanctuary movement, in www.CandidatoUSA.com 6 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 which churches offer safe harbor to unauthorized immigrants, has not caught on in Catholic churches in recent times. “There are legal liabilities in that,” said Rausch, a Jesuit priest. The Church’s liberal stance on immigration has come with the risk of alienating its more conservative parishioners. “It’s not been easy,” the Bishops Conference’s Appleby said. “There are a lot of Catholics who have disagreed with the bishops.” Fifty year-old Carl Braun of San Diego is one. A founding member of the California Minuteman movement, an anti-immigration group, and a lifelong Catholic, Braun has often debated immigration with priests and Church representatives at colleges. To him, the issue is one of abiding by the law, while the Church insists it’s one of injustice. “The Church has really abandoned people like me,” he said. “I’m very unhappy that my church has chosen to get involved on the wrong side of the issue. I don’t think they should be involved in politics at all.” The Church says it’s trying to educate the more moderate swathe of its flock to the rightness of its cause, which it traces back to the Bible’s call for justice and protection of the weak, including “the stranger in a land.” Appleby says: “We need that middle 30 percent.” Others say that despite the Church's outspoken advocacy role, its effect on Capitol Hill has been minimal. "It gives a kind of moral cover for the Chamber of Commerce, for the people trying to make money off immigration," says Roy Beck, president of Numbers USA, an immigration-reduction group. Locally, though, he thinks the Church has had more impact, "There are city councils that have not adopted more aggressive enforcement measures against immigration." In Oklahoma last week, Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa released a www.CandidatoUSA.com 7 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 pastoral letter criticizing a proposed law that would restrict the hiring of unauthorized immigrants and their access to government benefits, saying it was unjust. Also last week, the Catholic Bishops of California released a statement calling for immigration reform that would include improved border security and enhanced humanitarian training for border guards, compassionate rules and practical time frames for family reunification, and reasonable time frames for processing applications, among other provisions. Some critics have charged that the Church is simply trying to fill pews with new worshipers from Latin America. But Church advocates say the Church is merely serving its constituency, as is its tradition. “The Church supported unions in this country because that was their con- www.CandidatoUSA.com gregants – the working class,” Rausch says. “Immigration has really energized the Church.” POLITICS California May Split Electoral College Vote Proponents of a move to change the way California apportions its Electoral College votes hope to turn in enough signatures this week to put the measure on the June ballot. If approved, the measure would mean that California’s plum of 55 Electoral College votes would be awarded on an individual basis to the top votegetter in each congressional district, netting Electoral College votes for both Republicans and Democrats. Currently, the winner-takes-all system awards the bloc of 55 votes - the most of any state in the nation - to the statewide victor, either a Republican or Democrat. “We’ve got 500,000 signatures in hand,” said Chris Wysocki, spokesman for California Counts, the Sacramentobased group pushing the initiative. “Our goal is to turn in a little bit over 600,000. We’re optimistic.” The largely Republican-backed group needs 434,000 names but is aiming higher to include provisions for invalid signatures. “In a state as big as California, to award a quarter of all electoral votes to the person who may not even get the majority [of the popular vote] is unfair,” Wysocki says. One consequence of such a change would be that the impact of Latinos’ and other minority voters’ ballots 8 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 would be all but lost, says Ryan O’Donnell, spokesman for FairVote, the Center for Voting and Democracy. The election would be reduced to mini-battlegrounds of swing districts, which like swing states usually have far fewer minority voters than “safe” districts. “It used to be that California was a swing state. California is now irrelevant as well as Nevada and other big-population minority states,” O’Donnell says. “What we really need is a national popular vote so that every vote is counted equally.” Wysocki says localizing the presidential election would bring more importance to California. “Presidential candidates come and raise money in California, but they don’t really show up here,” he says. “This would require presidential candidates to spend time in California.” Opponents see the proposal simply as a way Republicans can net a few more Electoral College delegates out of a solidly Democratic state. “The power grab is being seen for what it is,” says Chris Lehane, spokesman for Californians for Fair Electoral Reform, an organization created to combat the initiative. “It’s a loser at the ballot box." The power grab is being seen for what it is California having a different system than other states would create a “warped playing field,” O'Donnell notes. “It’s a bad idea if you do it only in some states because it’s partisan.” One other state, North Carolina, tried to implement a similar reform with its Electoral College votes, but the state Legislature rescinded the measure. www.CandidatoUSA.com Meanwhile, a movement calling for a national popular vote is gathering steam. Thirteen chambers of state Legislatures have passed it so far, O’Donnell said. THE CONVERSATION This Week, With Henry Bonilla Former Republican Representative Henry Bonilla spent fourteen years in Congress representing southwest Texas following a career as a broadcast journalist. He lost his seat in the 2006 election to Democratic opponent Ciro Rodrigues. Bonilla is now a lobbyist and partner of the Washington, D.C.-based Normandy Group. He is also a supporter of Mitt Romney for President. When we last spoke you said the best way to communicate to Latino voters was to not treat them as anything other than Americans. For the most part Hispanics who are here, especially first, second, thirdgeneration really want to assimilate as mainstream Americans. And they want to maintain their closeness to their ethnicity. I find politicians are more successful when they speak to Hispanic Americans as if they are first and foremost Americans. I did that and I am proud to say that for a long, long time we would win in areas that traditionally Republicans had never ever come close to winning before. There is a subset within the Hispanic community that does want to draw a line and say this is us against them but that is not the majority. You'll find a common thread among the successful political leaders such as President Bush, Senator John McCain or Governor Schwarzenegger and that is they treat Hispanic Americans as I've just described instead of trying to pander to them or treat them differently. What specific advice would you offer to like-minded candidates in heavily Hispanic districts? First, go there and campaign as much as you would in any other neighborhood and don't have any fear of the culture. Go in there and embrace the culture and don't feel bad if you may not speak Spanish fluently. That is not what they are going to judge you on for the most part, go in there and let them know that you want to learn, you want to embrace their communities. Most importantly let them know they will have a seat at the table. That's all they generally want, nobody in this country expects a political leader to agree with them on everything but they do like to be heard and especially with the controversy over immigration continuing to burn very hot, they need more than ever to have that communication regularly. A couple of specifics before we move on to the issue of immigration did you use Spanish-language media? Did it work or not? We did. We didn't do it as much as we did mainstream media. We found there was a lot of interest in them assimilating and having communication through English-language media. Now, I know that doesn't set well with a lot of Spanish-language media but that is what we found. But I also myself did use Spanishlanguage media. I think it is good to find a combination of both. The Hispanic Americans that tend to vote, 9 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 007 we find historically they tend to communicate more through Englishlanguage media. In terms of messaging, how do you talk about immigration and driver's licenses without angering Hispanic voters or making them feel there is more to this discussion than political rights and responsibilities? You have to be compassionate in your discussion. If you talk about driver's licenses, for example, you don't want to just angrily say that you don't want to support that. I think a lot of times candidates aren't able to include that compassion and those thoughtout positions. And they come across perhaps as trite or as though they haven't considered both sides. Alot of times it is presentation as much as anything else. Going into the Univision debate on December 9th, what advice would you give to the Republican candidates? For obvious reasons, the Hispanic community debates are much more important to the Democratic candidates because they can make a difference in primaries in the next 90 days. This is important more for long term support for the candidate so they can look back a few months later and say they laid some groundwork for the general election. In the CNN/YouTube debate there was talk of 'illegals' and 'illegal aliens.' A number of the same candidates have used terminology such as 'undocumented immigration' in the past. Would you recommend the Republicans use caution when it comes to the terminology they use during the Univision debate? Well, I don't think there is a problem with anyone calling an illegal www.CandidatoUSA.com alien an illegal alien. It is a sensitive, fine line that a candidate has to straddle. But, for the most part, if you are trying to use terminology simply to be perceived differently and you don't really feel it - people will see through that. To try to change the topic or the term undocumented alien or illegal alien - both are accurate. It is a matter of which one you think is more appealing to your audience. I don't think that is going to be the make-orbreak issue in the end. OPINION Candidates Should Focus More on Small Business Owners By Michael L. Barrera and David C. Lizárraga Today’s candidates have much to learn from the 1992 and 2004 campaigns. A closer look at the winning candidates from those election years will show they wooed small business owners. During his campaign in 1992, Bill Clinton aligned his camp to the economy and small business community to beat out Ross Perot and former President George H. Bush. In 2004, President Bush honed in on tax relief, lower health care costs and litigation reform for small business owners. Even First Lady Laura Bush got in on the act. She campaigned in swing states including Minnesota and Michigan to target women business owners. Bush's Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, assembled a network of business owners in over a dozen battleground states to court entrepreneurs. He also supported refundable tax cred- its for up to 50 percent. Quite simply, the candidate that championed the small business vote won. Someone – anyone – should take heed. To date, the 2008 candidates have talked more about issues that will hurt small business than those that will grow small business. We hear more about tax hikes, limiting trade policies and the imposition of draconian immigration laws rather than plans and policies will strengthen this nation’s entrepreneurial spirit. News flash: Small businesses represent 99.7 of all employer firms and employ about half of all private sector employers. As a major generator of jobs, small business is the backbone of America and a strong factor in U.S. economic growth and stability. Another oversight is that 2008 presidential candidates have yet to woo the Hispanic business community representing 2.7 million businesses with a projected $388 billion in revenues for 2008. The Hispanic-owned companies are among the most successful small business owners, with Latina-owned companies being the fastest growing segment among all minority-owned companies. Address small business needs, and we will come a-calling. Court the Hispanic business vote, and you have a devoted voting bloc. The presidential candidates and their respective political parties are committing a disservice to Americans by their failure to outline their agenda for entrepreneurs. We look forward to hearing from the candidates regarding these issues. David C. Lizárraga is board chairman of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Michael L. Barrera is its president. 10 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws D e ce m b e r 3 , 2 0 07 Ta b l e o f Co n t e n t s Candidato USA 2625 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Suite 285 Coral Gables, FL 33134 Tel: 305.448.5838 Fax: 305.448.6573 www.CandidatoUSA.com POLITICAL MARKETING Candidates Look for Amigos................................................................................................................................3 Democratic candidates befriend Hispanic voters on Latino social networking sites. Publisher: Arturo Villar [email protected] Editor: Luis Clemens [email protected] Contributing Editor: Roberto Suro [email protected] MEDIA WATCH Univision Forum Poses Unique Challenges For Republicans.........................................................................4 The upcoming Republican forum represents both opportunity and a potential pitfall. COO-General Inquiries: John Voss [email protected] National Sales Manager: Brian Gingrich [email protected] HISPANIC VOTER OUTREACH Hispanic Voter Outreach From On High.............................................................................................................4 The Roman Catholic Church is one of the most outspoken institutional advocates of immigration reform. Sales & Marketing Coordinator: Dayna Levin dlevin @candidatousa.com Web Manager: Andrew Schwartz [email protected] Subscriber Services: Lorena Oriani [email protected] POLITICS California May Split Electoral College Vote........................................................................................................8 A ballot initiative seeks to reapportion the Golden State's Electoral College votes. Candidato USA is published every Monday by Solmark Media Group, Inc. The editors are solely responsible to their readers and to themselves. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: THE CONVERSATION This Week, Wth Henry Bonilla.............................................................................................................................9 Former Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla offers free advice on how to connect with Hispanic voters. It is a violation of federal copyright law to reproduce or distribute all or part of this publication or its contents by any means. Candidato USA does not license or authorize reproduction by subscribers or anyone else without specific written permission. However, multiple copy or site license subscriptions are available at substantial savings. Please contact John Voss (jvoss@candidatousa .com) at 305.448.5838 for more information. OPINION Copyright 2007, Candidato USA. Candidates Should Focus More on Small Business Owners..........................................................................10 For our editorial pledge please visit www.CandidatoUSA.com All rights reserved. The president and board chair of the United States Hispanic Chambers of Commerce urge the candidates to pay greater attention to small business owners. . www.CandidatoUSA.com 11 © 2007 Candidato USA, All Rights Reserved. Do Not Copy or Distribute – Obey Copyright Laws