Fla. and Col. Campaigns Woo Latinos, Undecideds Up And Down Ballot

Swing states Colorado and Florida -- both known for their increasing Latino populations -- are drawing increasing attention from Democrat and Republican strategists, who are working heatedly to win races up and down the ballot.

Insiders say they have been paying special attention to what is working in the two states to see as far as fund raising and voter registration and solicitation. They're also noting party infighting.

In both sates there remain a large number of undecided voters. Most polls are still showing as much as 10 percent undecided in both states, including roughly the same percentage among the Latino communities.

Both states are seen as key. Florida for its big electoral college numbers and Colorado as a possible pivot state in the West, which leaned Republican in 2000 and 2004.

According to the Rocky Mountain News today, Sen. McCain raised $3.2 million in suburban Denver at the home of investor Charles Gallagher during a two-day Colorado campaign swing, with more fundraisers and town hall meetings and factory visits in the nearby Rockies still on tap. McCain is scheduled to return to Vail for a $1,000 per person luncheon in mid-August, hosted by one of the men imprisoned with McCain in Vietnam.

Big-money celebrity fundraisers for Obama are scheduled for this weekend in South Florida.

And the money is being spent fast. Jon Ausman, of the Florida Democratic Committee, released an e-mail barrage letting Democrats know that a major and expensive broadcast "air war" is underway. At the same time, GOP strategists are saying they will spend whatever is necessary to get the attention of the voters in the two states.

Ausman -- a longtime DNC member from Tallahassee -- said that Senator Barack Obama has "started a very aggressive air war which may well produce a decisive victory in November 2008," reporting that Obama began running television ads in 18 states. Fourteen of these states were carried by George Bush in 2004 and four of the states were won by John Kerry.

Between 3 June and 26 July, the Obama campaign spent $26,910,000 on television ads. In Florida alone Obama spent $5,028,000, or 18.7 percent of his total media budget to date.

Colorado received 3 percent of the TV/radio budget for Obama but insiders are promising a larger effort, particularly with ads aimed at the Latino community. McCain's TV ads aimed at Latinos are already running in Colorado, with a message on the "contributions" made by the Hispanic population.

Disagreements among would-be Florida convention delegates continues over delegation vacancies, especially seats set aside for Florida veterans. A flurry of emails was sent to Florida Democrats from the Tampa Bay area, saying delegates were being named indiscriminately.

Colorado and Florida both have important Congressional races (and a tight Senate race in Colorado pitting Democrat Mark Udall against the GOP's Bob Schaeffer) which are being watched closely as signs of how the November election may turn out.

Comments

[heal57]

The only Latinos who will vote for McCain will be the older Cubans in the Miami area. The younger ones are of a different nature, thank God.