Beehive State group has but one non-Anglo among 68 delegates, alternate delegates and party officialsBy Thomas Burr The Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:09/05/2008
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" posted a billboard outside the Twin Cities proclaiming to Republican National Convention delegates: "Welcome, Rich White Oligarchy." Republicans may sharply disagree with two of the descriptors, but with a sea of almost all white delegates, they'll have a hard time arguing with the other. Of the 2,380 delegates at the convention, only 36 are black (1.5%), according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. And a CBS-New York Times survey of delegates found 93 percent of delegates are white and only 5 percent are Latino. Utah's delegation is a prime example: There is only one non-Anglo among the 68 delegates (1.5%), alternate delegates and party officials. That is despite the fact that Latinos are the fastest-growing population in Utah for the past decade and now make up about 12 percent of the state. More than 300,000 Latinos reside in the Beehive State. Even so, Sean Reyes, a Salt Lake City lawyer who is a quarter each Japanese, Hawaiian, Spanish and Filipino, says the lack of diversity on the floor of the Xcel Center this week is not an accurate reflection of the party overall. "The party has welcomed us with open arms," says Reyes, an alternate delegate. "It's not an indictment of the party, but an opportunity for us to do more with the party." Reyes - who was joined at the convention by Utahn Marco Diaz, vice chairman of the National Republican Hispanic Assembly - says the Republican Party has made strides in reaching out to Latinos. He predicts that in 10 or 15 years, many more Latinos will realize the GOP shares their values. "The system may reflect more our newness to the political process and not understanding necessarily how to become a delegate or the importance of being a delegate," Reyes says. The Utah Democratic Party's 40-member delegation to its national convention last week included four blacks and three Latinos. Surveys show a similar diversity gap nationally. In 1999, a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found that Latinos who identified with or leaned toward a party backed Democrats 58 percent of the time, compared to 25 percent for Republicans. This year, the same survey showed 65 percent of Latinos identify or lean toward the Democratic Party, and 26 percent aligned with the GOP. President Bush drew about 40 percent of Latino voters in the 2004 election, but the party has since lost sway with this population. A poll earlier this year showed almost a 66 percent vs. 23 percent difference between Latinos supporting Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain. "Hispanics traditionally are Democrats," says Susan Minushkin, deputy director of the Pew Hispanic Center. While Bush did well with Latinos, she said, "Right now, they appear with party identification to have switched back." Utah Republican Chairman Stan Lockhart says the party is trying to recruit more people, including Latinos, to join through the Republican Hispanic Assembly and other outlets. He says the party is being aggressive in trying to send the message that Republican values are Latino values as well. "We'd like to see a delegate makeup very similar to the makeup of the population of our country and of our state," Lockhart said. Diaz, a GOP activist and former congressional staffer to Rep. Chris Cannon, says the lack of diversity is something the party is working on. "Obviously, we have some opportunity to try and recruit, engage and involve more Hispanics in our party," he says. But the makeup may not change dramatically overnight. "It's a process; it takes time," he says.
Alex Comment;
Marco Diaz wants Hispanics that DONT support illegal immigration reform (or whites) joining the Utah Republican Hispanic Assy.
He would not let me join, also the Utah GOP leadership loves him because his brown and down with the invasion.
Token Hispanic
