It hasn’t been all fun and games here at Hofstra in the hours leading up to the debate. Despite the festival-like atmosphere outside the student center, behind the scenes have been campaign operatives wheeling and dealing, media foreign and domestic all trying to get the story no one else thought of and groups like Democracia U.S.A. fighting for their 15 minutes.
Democracia held a poorly attended press conference this morning revealing data from a national poll of Hispanics about their thoughts, worries and concerns.
Not much new news here, unfortunately. Of 500 Hispanic registered voters surveyed throughout all 50 states, 63 percent said jobs and the economy were among their two most important issues, a number pretty much right in line with the rest of the country right now.
Among jobs and the economy, the greatest concern of those respondents was the rising cost of living at 55 percent, followed by the lack of good paying jobs at 25 percent, the high unemployment rate at 25 percent and the lower value of investments at 8 percent.
What was interesting, was when the polling group asked them who they considered was the Hispanic leader who influences them the most when it comes to issues and politics.
At the top of the list was Univision anchor Jorge Ramos,followed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, actor Edward James Olmos and former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Perhaps most telling was the two biggest Hispanic names in government, Mel Martinez and Alberto Gonzales, were not among the top 16 listed.
Democracia U.S.A. was first started in 2004 and since then has registered more than 138,000 Hispanic voters, mainly in Florida.
In 2006, the organization started voter registration drives in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. There are plans to expand that to northern New Jersey, but not New York as of yet, Democracia President Jorge Murseli said.
“New Yorkers are generally known to be well taken-care of,” Murseli said.
