Arturo Carmona, executive director of Presente.org, talks to “Viewpoint” host Eliot Spitzer about his organization’s efforts to get out the Latino vote, including a recent ad telling Latinos that Republicans “are trying to steal your vote.” Carmona says Latinos in states like Florida, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona are repelled by the GOP’s voter ID efforts as well as by the party’s anti–Dream Act stance and the passage in Arizona of SB1070, a controversial immigration law.
“You’re beginning to see that this demonization of the Latino community — [these] anti-immigrant, anti-Latino stances — are beginning to have an effect,” he says. ”You’re seeing Latinos are becoming more energized, are becoming more fired up about this issue. That they’re saying they’re not going to be dissuaded from the polls — to the contrary, they’re going to fight for their rights and they’re going to vote in large numbers.”
