Hispanic Republicans Celebrate 33 Years

Today the RNHA celebrates its 33rd Anniversary. On this day in 1974, Republican National Committee Chairman, George H.W. Bush, created the RNHA.

“Today, the Republican National Hispanic Assembly proudly celebrates is anniversary and rich history of Hispanic involved in politics,’ said Chairman Pedro Celis. “Much like our first chairman, Ben Fernandez, who was the first Hispanic to run for U.S. President, our members will continue making strides in politics.”

To send your “Happy Birthday” and we will post them on our web page and blog.

For more information, about GOP history visit Grand Old Partisan

Hispanics & the Internet

According to Latino Loop:

"The topic of Hispanics online proved to be one of the top issues at last week’s AHAA (Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies) Spring conference. Last year the number of Hispanics online with broadband at home grew from 40% to 61% and social networking site use grew 200%."

Hispanic outreach crucial to GOP

Ken Melhman highlighted the importance of the Hispanic vote and the need to expand the party. Read the whole thing at Politico.com in his OpEd: Hispanic Outreach Crucial to the GOP

Melhman, who served as the RNC's Chairman and Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign manager, is now a partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Gaure & Feld, LLP, made the following statements

"In 1980, as he was preparing to run for president, Ronald Reagan asked Lionel Sosa, an advertising executive from San Antonio, to lead his outreach to the Hispanic community. Reagan told Sosa his job would be easy: "Latinos are Republican. They just don't know it yet."

On this, as in so many other areas, Reagan was a man who saw the future. In 1984, he made history, receiving 32 percent of the Hispanic vote. President George W. Bush achieved similar results in 2000, and in 2004 won a record 44 percent of the Hispanic vote.

They're not alone. Smart Republicans who have listened to, and offered solutions to, concerns of Hispanic-Americans have done even better: Sixty percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 44 percent for former New York Gov. George E. Pataki and 46 percent for former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens in 2002.

Even in the tough year of 2006, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger collected 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, while Florida Gov. Charlie Crist pulled in 49 percent and Arizona Sen. John Kyl won 41 percent.

These numbers shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has studied Hispanic voters. Hispanic-Americans tend to be conservative. Last year, pollster David Winston asked registered voters to rate themselves on a 1 to 9 scale from very liberal to very conservative. He found that, overall, the country was center-right and Hispanic-Americans viewed themselves slightly to the right of the country as a whole.

Hispanic outreach is not only natural for the GOP, it is crucial. The Hispanic community is the fastest growing segment of our country, and it is huge. There are 10 million more Hispanics in the U.S. than there are Canadians in Canada. If this population were a Latin American country, it would be the third largest. It would also be the richest. Salsa outsells ketchup and tacos outsell hot dogs. Univision is the channel where more Americans get their evening news than any other. In Nebraska, one out of every eight people under 35 is Hispanic.

.... President Bush appointed the most diverse administration in history, with the first Hispanic attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, a Hispanic commerce secretary, Carlos M. Gutierrez, and other top officials including former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona, U.S. Treasurer Anna Escobedo Cabral and Israel Hernandez, one of the government's chief export promoters. The first Hispanic to lead one of the national parties is a Republican, Sen. Mel Martinez (Fla.), the GOP general chairman. We must work harder to identify and recruit future Hispanic leaders to run for office under the GOP banner.

Read the full article at Politico.com

Hispanic Lobbyist Join Forces

A groups of prominent Hispanic Lobbyist have join forces --- in the hopes they will find strength in numbers and grow those numbers.

The group of 60 created the Hispanic Lobbyists Association, its goal is to increase networking opportunities and providing mentoring for young Latino up-and-comers.

According the the Cox News article:

Estuardo V. Rodriguez, a lobbyist for the Raben Group and president of the association, said that it hopes to mentor young talent and encourage offices on Capitol Hill to hire more Hispanics who could later move into lobbying. Traditionally, Hispanics have been underrepresented in the industry, several lobbyists said. The Raben Group represents many corporations and non-profit groups including The Home Depot, General Electric Company, XM Satellite Radio, and the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights organization.

Rodriguez said the association plans to work with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other groups to create "a pipeline of resumes" of people of Hispanic backgrounds to send to different committees and Hill offices. "That's where we are going to get our future dues paying members," he said.

The group plans to have an event on Capitol Hill on April 25.

RNC elects a Latino

The Republic National Committee elected Senator Mel Martinez of Florida to be the new overall chairman.

Martinez, 60, is the first Hispanic to head the RNC. He will be the new face of the GOP and will share duties with Kentucky's Mike Duncan, who will be in charge of the party's day-to-day operations.

Read Sen. Martinez's remarks