Governor Romney’s quest to win the Latino vote, may not be that realistic, and probably will not happen.
Republicans have been steadily losing ground to Democrats among Latinos. After George W. Bush won 40% of the Latino vote in 2004, Arizona Sen. John McCain, who once championed comprehensive immigration reform, won just 31% of Latinos in 2008.
This year, the Republican primary debate has clearly taken its toll. A Fox News Latino poll released in early March showed the erosion of Latino support for the GOP: 70% of Latino voters backed Obama, compared with 14% supporting Romney. Four in five Latino voters who backed Obama in 2008 said they would support him in 2012, but those who had supported McCain split their support between the two parties.
Courting the Latino vote is extremely difficult given that the Supreme Court is listening to arguments regarding Arizona’s extreme immigration law that allows police to detain anyone – that means anyone – suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
Support for the Arizona law has grown since it was signed. A Fox News poll released Friday showed more than 65 percent of U.S. voters approve of the law, compared to 31 percent who oppose it. The measure is especially popular with Republicans, who support it by 84 percent.
But the law remains decidedly unpopular among Hispanics — the fastest growing voter bloc in the country, and a group that Republicans publicly acknowledge they need to make inroads with if they are going to win the White House in November.
That adds up to a balancing act for Romney, who will face questions about the law as he tries to drum up support with Hispanics without alienating his party’s base.
As a former pollster for Senator John Kerry said, “There’s no play in the immigration debate for Republicans — the states that it would move people are already in the R column.”