Ohio senator says goodbye
December 27, 2010
State Senator Sue Morano (D-Lorain) released the following letter today to thank her constituents for the opportunity to serve in the Ohio Senate:
“To The Residents of the 13th State Senate District:
‘I would like to thank the people of this district for the opportunity to serve as your Senator for the past four years. When you elected me in 2006, I made a promise to represent everyday families and I believe I have fulfilled that promise.’
‘In my term as State Senator, I have been able to help many families gain access to needed services and information. My office in Columbus has provided guidance to those trying to navigate the unemployment system, obtain help with home heating problems, and a multitude of other issues.’
‘In addition to helping constituents, I worked diligently to protect our environment with the Great Lakes Compact and supported our agriculture community by advocating for the Ohio Livestock Care Board. I also worked closely with local business leaders to keep jobs in our area, and I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish even amidst a global recession.’
‘I have introduced and voted on legislation that will make Ohio a better, safer place to work and live and to make sure that the most vulnerable among us are properly taken care of.’
‘It has been my honor to take the values, beliefs, and hopes of the 13th District with me to Columbus. My roots run very deep in this community and I am truly grateful for all the support I have received.’
‘We all know that tough times lie ahead for this state and this District. I wish my successor the best of luck, and I want you all to know that I will continue working to improve the lives of working families in Ohio.’
Thank you,
Senator Sue Morano
13th State Senate District
Kasich center of attention at RGA
November 19, 2010
Marcus Atkinson
Hispanicohio.com editor
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John Kasich may have stolen the show according to media reports during the recent Republican Governors Association gathering. Republicans gained a key victory in winning the governorship of Ohio. Kasich himself downplays the issue, saying he is just focused on bringing in and retaining jobs for Ohio.
During the elections both parties concentrated on jobs as their platform to the Mansion, but while Democrats say spending is the key to attract jobs, Kasich favors tax cuts. During the gathering, Kasich received plenty of attention from major corporations.
In fact, there was a steady line of corporate officials waiting to talk to Kasich, including from Accenture, Marathon Oil and USEC, the company that is trying to build a uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio. Kasich took all comers.
“I see this as an opportunity to meet all these business people, any of whom may have a connection or could develop a connection with Ohio,” he said
Twenty – nine states will have Republican governors come January. That includes Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which will be huge swing states in 2012, thus having Republican governors will help in terms of raising funds and sharing resources.
Information gathered from the Columbus Dispatch
Readout of the President’s Meeting with Representatives of the Congressional Hispanic Caucu
November 18, 2010
In an Oval Office meeting today, the President and leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, U.S. Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York, and U.S. Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois – discussed the options on immigration reform immediately facing the Congress. He thanked them for their constant efforts on this issue. The President and the CHC leaders believe that, before adjourning, Congress should approve the DREAM Act. This legislation has traditionally enjoyed support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and would give young people who were brought as minors to the United States by their parents the opportunity to earn their citizenship by pursuing a college degree or through military service.
The President reiterated his support for fixing the broken immigration system and urged the CHC leaders to work to restore the bipartisan coalition backing comprehensive immigration reform. The President repeated his hope that, with the election season’s pressures past, Congressional Republicans would work with their Democratic colleagues not only to strengthen security at the nation’s borders, but also to restore responsibility and accountability to what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system. The President reiterated his strong support for bipartisan Congressional action on immigration reform at the earliest opportunity, noting that the American people expect both parties to work together to tackle the challenges confronting our nation
Hispanics hurt most by potential medicaid cuts
November 15, 2010
Marcus Atkinson
hispanicohio.com editot
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Hispanics have the highest uninsured rates of any racial or ethnic group in the United States (about 1 in 4 uninsured). The percentage of people of Hispanic origin without health insurance coverage also is increasing every year. In 2009, 32.7 percent were uninsured, an increase of 1.26 million people over the previous year. For Hispanics ages 18 to 64 the uninsured rate was 41. This news is uninspiring considering the Hispanic population is about 48 million. Assuming the estimated 12 million undocumented workers don’t have insurance, the number increases even more.
Come January,both chambers in Ohio’s assemblywill be GOP controlled as well as a new Republican governor. The new House Majority Floor Leader will be Matt Huffman (R-Lima) and he has already come on record saying he will attempt to make cuts to Ohio’s Medicaid program, which is the second largest expenditure in Ohio, only behind funding the state’s prisons. 10TV in Columbus had an opportunity to talk to Huffman not too long ago.
“We are essentially at the breaking point where we can’t nibble around the edges. We have to make a significant and fundamental change,” said Huffman.
Budget experts say Ohio will have an 11 billion dollar deficit to fix come 2011, and Medicaid is enticing to many Ohio GOP members.
“We have a number of programs [in Medicaid] that exceed the guidelines,” said Bill Batchelder (R- Medina), the Ohio House of Representatives speaker-elect. “In other words, we are spending more on them than in other states.”
The Columbus Dispatch also had an opportunity to talk to Batchelder.
The Medina resident said that kind of shortfall means there is no way to avoid making significant changes to Medicaid, the $12.5 billion state-federal health insurance program for the poor and disabled.
Asked if that meant reducing eligibility to 100 percent of the federal poverty level, $22,050 for a family of four, Batchelder said, “That seems to me to be inevitable.”
Nursing home costs take up about 20 percent of Medicaid cost, so cuts in providing this care is also considered an option.
“We do have some wonderful nursing homes across this state and you don’t want to damage the ability of people to obtain good nursing-home care, particularly as the number of Alzheimer’s patients goes up,” he said. “But we’re doing things that are not necessary to do. My suspicion is there will be something done in those areas.”
Whenever cuts in governmental budgets are made, it goes without saying the poor are affected the worse. Twenty-five percent of Hispanics live in poverty. Only 56 percent graduate from high school, and only 64 percent of those who gradate end up enrolling in college. In a day of age where a high school diploma barely provides the qualifications to meet a necessity, Hispanics are running a race with a 10 feet delay. Make no mistake, when cuts are made, everyone is affected, no matter the socioeconomic status, race etc, but Hispanics face so many challenges in society, Ohio state cuts have the potential to hurt them the most.
Information provided the U.S. Census Bureau
Dems did bad job of attracting Hispanics
November 11, 2010
By Kathleen Hennessey and James Oliphant
Tribune Washington Bureau
(MCT)
WASHINGTON – Democrats searching for good news amid the rubble of Tuesday’s midterm elections results can look to Hispanics and African-Americans, two groups of voters that stayed with the party in large numbers.
But in a sense, it’s small comfort.
The party was overwhelmingly rejected by whites, independents and seniors. Perhaps most troubling to Democrats: an increasing number of women also turned toward the GOP.
Young voters, so crucial to President Barack Obama’s historic victory two years ago, showed up in fewer numbers Tuesday, and many more voted Republican than before.
To make matters worse, while black and Latino voters remained more loyal to Democratic Party, they voted in far fewer numbers than in 2008. And even in those groups, 3 percent to 5 percent defected from Democrats to Republicans.
Geographically, Democrats were largely pushed out of states where the party believed it had made lasting inroads, such as Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The result is a national electoral map that more closely resembles that of the early 2000s, with Democrats largely confined to the East and West coasts, and the GOP dominating the heartland and the South.
All in all, it was a stunning whiplash of a reversal from two years ago, suggesting that the neither party can claim to have a hold on the American electorate.
Voters “have the clicker in their hands, and they have no problem hitting the ‘next’ button,” said Paul Maslin, a pollster and Democratic strategist in Wisconsin. “It’s now at warp speed. You can see it in two-year cycles.”
The Democratic erosion was perhaps most accentuated by the flight of women, who were among the party’s most enthusiastic supporters in 2006 and 2008. According to exit poll data, women essentially split their votes evenly between Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday. The last time that happened was in 2002.
White women in particular defected from Democrats, giving their votes to Republicans by an 18-point margin. Similarly, 57 percent of married women voted for Republicans, while unmarried women – a more liberal group – turned out in smaller numbers than in 2008.
That’s a dynamic Democrats must reverse if they are to hold the White House, said Page Gardner, a Democratic strategist and founder of the advocacy group Women’s Voices, Women Vote. “Clearly, these guys were not speaking to these women,” Gardner said. “Candidates were not; the White House was not.”
Women were especially pessimistic about the economy, an issue that also undermined support for Democrats among voters in the political middle.
“It’s not about turnout, or the base, or enthusiasm,” said Maslin, the Democratic strategist. “We have to have a bread-and-butter economic message that convinces people to trust us again. We have to deliver.”
Overall, Republicans claimed 60 percent of the white vote Tuesday, with seniors, an expanding part of the electorate, overwhelmingly supporting the GOP.
Meanwhile, African-Americans remained one of the Democrats’ most reliable voting blocs, and their turnout on Tuesday appears to have matched 2006, the midterm election that brought Democrats to power in the House. But there was still evidence of those voters’ deflated hopes in the president and his party.
Blacks made up 13 percent of the electorate in 2008, but only 10 percent Tuesday night. While just 4 percent of black voters cast ballots for Republican John McCain two years ago, 9 percent said in exit polls that they voted for GOP House candidates on Tuesday.
Hispanic voters may have supplied Democrats with the biggest reason for optimism Tuesday, particularly in states where they were needed most. Although their support for Democrats declined slightly from elections in 2008 and 2006, their turnout appeared to hold steady or even increase.
Such support was likely critical in Nevada, California and Colorado, where Democratic Senate candidates fended off strong challenges.
(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)
In Nevada, where Latinos made up 15 percent of the electorate, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid won 69 percent of the vote, according to exit polling, which experts have suggested may undercount Latino voters.
His opponent, tea party favorite Sharron Angle, alienated many Latinos with negative advertising and awkward comments on race. But Reid, the Senate majority leader, made a string of promises to Hispanic voters that Democrats in Congress may be hard-pressed to fulfill.
Reid pledged to revive comprehensive immigration revisions as well as pushing for a vote on the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow students living illegally in the U.S. to earn legal status if they graduate from high school and complete two years in college or the military.
(END OPTIONAL TRIM)
Still, if there is one element of this week’s thrashing in which Democrats can find solace, it’s that history has proven voters can shift easily.
“I don’t think any party is going to have a lock of elections in this country considering how closely divided our political values are,” said Scott Keeter, a pollster with the Pew Research Center in Washington.
Keeter said Republicans basically won this election by the same margin Democrats did two years ago.
“In the best possible climate for Democrats, they can get 53 percent of the vote,” he said. “In the best possible climate for Republicans, they can get 53 percent of the vote.”
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Hispanics and the new GOP
November 9, 2010
Marcus Atkinson
Hispanicohio.com editor
Editor’s Note – The views and opinions expressed in this article are of those of the author only. They in no way reflect the views and opinions of hispanicohio.com or its partners and affiliates.
Before last weeks elections, President Obama essentially told the Hispanic community to get out and vote, and vote for Democrats because a vote for Republicans was a vote for their enemies; well America voted, and it was for Republicans.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who likely will be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said “immigration reform” not be a priority because they must first streamline enforcement of current laws.
In a FOX news report, Smith said:
“The enforcement of our immigration laws is critical to both our national security and economic prosperity,” he told the San Antonio Express. “We need to know who is entering our country, and why.”
He told a newspaper that the committee would:
“enact policies that will better secure our border and discourage illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking.”
An anti-immigration reform organization called FAIR has their agenda as well.
“FAIR urges the leadership of the next Congress to embrace the agenda of the American people and transform our immigration policy to place their interests first,” Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said. “The American people want our immigration laws enforced and overall levels of immigration reduced. They have clearly repudiated efforts to enact amnesty for millions of illegal aliens and increase foreign labor for business interests.”
As previously reported by Hispanicohio.com, Congress, mainly the House of Representatives have a record number of Hispanic Republicans in office, but contrary to perception, this does not mean Republicans will advocate amnesty.
The Governor’s landscape in American has also changed, including Ohio, which elected John Kasich as Governor.
But not only did Republicans shake up Washington, they also captured a majority of governor’s mansions across the country, which is also likely to affect the national debate on immigration
Because Congress’s landscape will change so much come January, legislation will be rushed on the floor to pass laws that will be much more difficult in two months.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised before his re-election victory that he would bring up the DREAM Act for a vote in the lame duck session. The measure would grant conditional legal status to some illegal immigrant students under certain conditions.
If laws such as the DREAM Act are passed within the next month and a half, it will be near impossible to repeal after January because Democrats will still have the majority in the Senate and President Obama will still have his veto power, which can only be reversed by a two-thirds majority in the House.
As Republicans come into power in the House next month, it will be interesting to see what issues is priority and which are not. It will also be wise to watch the relationship Tea Party member have with other political parties. Two issues are definitely on the front burner, tax cuts, and change the health care bill.
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RUBEN NAVARRETTE: GOP including hispanics this time around
November 7, 2010
The midterm election was a watershed event for what is usually a lonely group of dissidents. These are people who belong to two distinct communities that are at odds with one another. One group worries that the dissidents are defined by their ethnicity while the other worries that they are running away from it.
They are Hispanic Republicans, and their ranks are growing. With one notable exception – the loss by California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado to Democrat Gavin Newsome – Hispanic Republicans made phenomenal gains across the country. In fact, when the 112th Congress convenes in January, it will include as many as nine Hispanic Republicans – a record number, some of them supported by the tea party.
By now, just about everyone knows the name Marco Rubio, the 39-year-old Cuban-American from a refugee family who was elected to the U.S. Senate from Florida.
Rubio had the best victory speech of the night. And these were some of the best lines.
“I know America’s great,” Rubio told supporters, “not because I read about it in a book but because I’ve seen it with my eyes. I’ve been raised in a community of exiles, of people who lost their country, of people who know what it’s like to live somewhere else. By the way, a community that I am proud to be a part of … And I know this. No matter where I go, or what title I may achieve, I will always be the son of exiles.”
Also in Florida, Republican David Rivera was elected to fill an open seat in the House of Representatives.
In Nevada, Republican Brian Sandoval was elected the state’s first Hispanic governor.
In Texas, where there are currently no Hispanic Republicans in the state House of Representatives, four were elected. Also in the Lone Star State, two Hispanic Republicans – Francisco Canseco and Bill Flores – were elected to the U.S. House, defeating veteran Democratic lawmakers.
In Washington, Republican Jaime Herrera will become the first Latina to represent her state in Congress.
In Idaho, Republican Raul Labrador becomes the first Hispanic to serve in Congress from that state
New Mexico topped them all. Three Hispanic Republicans were elected to statewide offices in the Land of Enchantment — Dianna Duran as secretary of state, John Sanchez as lieutenant governor, and rising star Susana Martinez as governor.
What does it all mean? I put that question to Frank Guerra, a San Antonio-based GOP marketing and communications strategist who has worked on the last three presidential campaigns.
For one thing, Guerra said, it means that there will be a new harvest of Hispanic officials to help the GOP mend fences with Hispanic voters. There is a lot of work to be done in that area since most Republicans can’t seem to talk about immigration without adopting an anti-Hispanic tone. Citing exit polls that showed about 33 percent of Hispanics voted for Republican candidates nationwide, Guerra takes comfort from the fact that many of these voters don’t seem to hold a grudge.
“I expected more of a backlash,” he said. “Even with all that noise, somehow, many Hispanics didn’t abandon us. We should see this as opportunity to build the party of the future.”
For Guerra, the election results are another reminder that immigration isn’t the only concern that drives these voters.
“Hispanics are not tied to just one issue,” he insisted. “It can color their view. It can make them passionate during the campaign. But, as the election approaches, they think about what is really going to impact them and their families. And right now, Hispanics are feeling what others are feeling, that the country is going in the wrong direction.”
But what’s important now is the direction that the Republican Party takes from here. If Hispanics are still willing to give the party a fair hearing, then the party needs to give them something worth listening to.
“I see an opportunity,” Guerra said. “We haven’t solved the problem (of alienating Hispanics) but we’re on the right track.” Maybe so. And, if the GOP is smart, it’ll let a new crop of Hispanic Republicans lead the way.
Ruben Navarrette is a columnist and editorial board member at the San Diego Union Tribune. He offers new thinking on major issues, especially thorny questions involving ethnicity and national origin.
RECORD NUMBER OF LATINO REPUBLICANS TO JOIN NEW CONGRESS
November 6, 2010
The Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections
November 5, 2010
Tuesday’s midterm elections were historic for Hispanics. For the first time ever, three Latino
candidates-all of them Republicans-won top statewide offices. In New Mexico, voters elected the nation’s first Latina governor, Republican Susana Martinez. In Nevada, Republican Brian Sandoval won the governor’s race and became Nevada’s first Hispanic governor. And in Florida, Republican Marco Rubio won the U.S. Senate race.
Despite these big top-of-the-ticket wins for Republican Hispanic candidates, Latino voters continued their strong support for Democratic candidates nationwide. National exit poll results show that Democrats had a nearly two-to-one advantage-64% versus 34%-over Republicans in U.S. House races among Latino voters. In other statewide races, Democratic candidates won the Latino vote, usually by wide margins.
Overall, according to the national exit poll, Latinos represented 8% of all voters, unchanged from 2006.
These and other findings can be found in a new report about the Latino vote in the 2010 midterm elections. Based on a Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, analysis of exit poll results, the report contains findings for the Latino vote nationally in U.S. House of Representatives races and an analysis of gubernatorial and Senate races in the states of Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, and the gubernatorial race in Texas.
The report, “The Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections,” authored by Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director of the Pew Hispanic Center, is available at the Pew Hispanic Center’s website, www.pewhispanic.org.
This report is one of three about the 2010 midterm elections from the Pew Research Center. For an exit poll analysis of the general electorate from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, see “Unpopular GOP Wins Across-the-Board Victory.” For an exit poll analysis of how religious groups voted from Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, see “Religion in the 2010 Elections: A Preliminary Look.”
Places of worship cause political dilemna
November 4, 2010
Marcus Atkinson
hispanicohio.com editor
Schools close around Ohio and public facilities are becoming rarer due to budget cuts, places of worship are increasingly becoming a popular voting location, but as parishes are becoming the norm it raises the issue of separation of church and state.
Lorain County, Cuyahoga County, Franklin county etc. are facing huge cuts in their municipalities and clergy are facing a dilemma because as community members they have opinions, and as people of divine thoughts many community members come to them for guidance.
“It really places us in a bind said one clergy person. “I have thoughts in my head but I can’t express them because it’s against the law.”
It is also not uncommon for people who are part of the church to run for political office. This causes family members to remain silent because they have family running for office and also are running a polling location
“I have to keep my political beliefs to myself,” said one parishioner. “Some people know my political beliefs because they know who I am but I am not allowed to share them allowed.”
Certainly this makes a confusing situation, but until our state regains resources, places of worship will continue to be popular voting locations, thus creating a dilemma for many local election officials.
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