Minority vote seen as key in presidential race

By Hywel Tuscano
NLGJA Reporter Staff

Winning the vote of the growing Latino population could be key to winning the presidential election this fall, panelists said Friday.

“Race for the White House: Diversity Reporting in an Election Year” addressed the increasing importance of the minority vote in what promises to be a close race between President George W. Bush and presumed Democratic nominee John Kerry.

Panelists said they were surprised at the Kerry campaign’s apparent lack of outreach to minority voters.

“I don’t know that John Kerry has been doing much outreach to regular voters either,” said Geoff Dankert, managing editor at WFLD-TV in Chicago. “With the upcoming La Raza speech and appearance at the Rainbow PUSH convention he may be realizing it’s time to do something.”

The panel also noted that Kerry is scheduled to be in New York at the same time as the Pride celebration.

“Apparently this is the week that John Kerry gets minorities,” said moderator Rose Arce, senior producer at CNN.

Panelists noted Bush’s Spanish-language advertisements and other efforts to win votes from ethnic minorities, while LGBT voters are being ignored, or attacked, they said.

“Republicans pretty much slammed the door on any kind of gay support,” Dankert said.