Editorial:
There were a couple of politi-cal movidas this past week that had a definite Hispanic flair to them.
The first and probably most noted political movida was the announcement by Texas Senator Ted Cruz that he was running for President of the United States, making him the first Hispanic Republican to run for the Presidency. While the announcement had been anticipated, it still sent shock waves through the political community and within the immigrant activist community.
From a practical point of view, Senator Cruz doesn’t have a chance in hell at becoming the next President of the United States. Cruz is an extremist, far to the right, and extremists are not welcome into mainstream politics. For example, one of Cruz’s many extreme campaign platforms is to do away with the IRS. However, through the force of his personality and because of his extreme positions, he has become a favorite of the extreme right wing/tea party types who are influential in the Republican Party.
Naturally, the immigrant community came out steadfast and forcefully against Cruz – and for good reason! Cruz is a hardliner against any sort of immigration reform and sees the issue solely as a border security issue, meaning bigger fences and more troops at the border.
Sen. Cruz has a litany of issues that will preclude him from being the next President. But, what Cruz has done and what he is good at doing is he has made himself the center of attention by virtue of being the first to officially announce his candidacy. At this point, he is driving the Republican conversation on what the next Republican President must represent in the way of ideas.
There are other right wing Republican candidates who have been trying to position themselves to attract a broader base of supporters, most notably Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Walker is also considered a darling of the right wing. Because of Cruz, Walker must now move to the right to consolidate his base of support.
We take a different position on the Cruz announcement than the immigrant advocates, whom we assume would like to see Cruz just go away. We welcome Cruz into the race! Cruz is a black and white guy when it comes to the issues. What he will do is to help define the Republican Party in black and white terms. There will be no guessing where Cruz and the Republican Party stands on issues of importance to the Hispanic community and the community should have no problem deciding who will best represent their interests. Even those Republican hopefuls, primarily Jeb Bush, will have to now talk more about those issues and we will see him move to the right in order to secure the nomination.
The second political movida that occurred during the week was the announcement of those candidates that the Latino Victory Fund is endorsing in 2015. For most folks this probably flew under the radar and was not noted or even cared about. But for some in the Hispanic political community this was a big deal because there had been questions about when and if they were going to endorse Jesús “Chuy” García for mayor of Chicago.
For those unfamiliar with the Latino Victory Fund, it is set up as a national political action group that was created with the support of actress Eva Longoria, after her successful fundraising efforts for Barack Obama, which made her major player in Hispanic politics.
Jesús “Chuy” García’s story in Chicago is that of an underdog who excited the middle class enough to force a runoff between himself and the incumbent mayor, Rahm Emanuel the presumptive favorite who all thought would win the race outright in the Primary. Chuy forced a runoff when he received 34% of the vote. As of this date Garcia has raised $3.5 million for the campaign while Emanuel has raised over $20 million.
While the endorsements are a good thing, it is a bit disappointing that the Latino Victory Fund in their announcement did not indicate that beyond the endorsement, no financial pledge was made as a PAC, especially in the case of Garcia. This is particularly disappointing when you consider Longoria raised over $30 million for Obama.
Endorsements without campaign contributions, or at least mobilization of volunteers on the campaign trail, ring hollow. Endorsements are always nice to have but standing alone do not mean much! The election is April 7.