Republicans acknowledge that to win the presidential election in 2012, they must grow their share of the Hispanic vote. But even as polling indicates Latino voters might be willing to give the GOP consideration, those chances are imperiled by a recent spat between the various campaigns and the largest Spanish-language television network, Univision.
At issue is a story Univision produced in July about the 1987 drug arrest of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s brother-in-law. Rubio aides complained about the network’s handling of the story, saying it was immaterial to the senator and his career — and moreover alleging that Univision offered to soften or kill the story if Rubio did an interview with them.
The network denied the allegation, saying that the senator’s office reacted poorly to the story because it reflected badly on a rising star who is increasingly in the national spotlight. Univision sources suggested that any politician who is being talked up as a potential vice presidential nominee ought to be thoroughly vetted.
In light of the dust-up, an unaligned group supportive of Rubio implored the GOP presidential candidates not to participate in the primary debate the network was preparing to announce. In rapid succession, many of them — Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman — acquiesced. (Attempts to reach the campaigns of Ron Paul and Rick Santorum for their position on the matter were not successful.)
Now, Univision and its massive audience of Spanish-speaking American voters are asking why it’s come to this; campaigns criticize other news organizations for stories they produce all the time, but they don’t boycott those organizations’ debates.
“Antagonizing Univision is a very risky strategy for the Republicans,” said Simon Rosenberg, the president of NDN (the New Democratic Network, a progressive think tank). “It’s sort of like NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox combined in the Spanish world.” And he warned added that generating antipathy “will damage the Republicans’ ability to reach Hispanic voters.”
The network boasts more than triple the viewership of Telemundo, the other major Spanish-language network.
A Univision executive who requested anonymity to speak frankly about the situation speculated that the conservative Republican contenders, in trying to win the nomination by supporting tough immigration measures and other “anti-Hispanic stances,” could lose the general election if they espoused such positions on his network. And so, he charged, they’re using the Rubio uproar as an excuse to avoid such a large Latino audience.
The executive also theorized that the campaigns, all of which would love to have Rubio’s endorsement, were happy to appease the Cuban-American senator.
Indeed, an aide to one of the presidential campaigns involved in the boycott privately conceded just that.
As for official stances on the issue, Mitt Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement earlier this month: “We have not received any invitation from Univision for a debate, but we are troubled by these allegations and would not participate in any such debate unless and until Univision satisfactorily addresses this situation.”
And Newt Gingrich spokesman Joe DeSantis similarly stated, “Newt has always enjoyed his appearances on Univision. He believes the scheduled Univision debate on January 29, 2012, is an important opportunity for Latinos to hear the conservative message of economic opportunity and pro-family values.” But, he noted, “The reports of extortion tactics by Univision against Senator Rubio are disturbing, especially since they cite sources within the news agency. They must be addressed in a satisfactory manner before Newt will consider appearing at the debate. We trust that Univision will take the time necessary to conduct a thorough internal investigation into this matter and if it is true at any level, apologize to Senator Rubio so that the scheduled debate can continue.”
Most of the other campaigns followed suit, requesting that the network offer an apology to the freshman senator for the three-month-old story. But according to Rubio spokesman Alex Conant, Univision has not been in touch with their office nor has it tried to make amends or have Rubio back on any of its programming.
According to Conant, neither the senator nor his office orchestrated the boycott, and they also have not been in touch with the presidential campaigns about it. In other words, the Republican candidates signed onto the pledge of their own volition — perhaps an indication of the clout that Rubio carries.
The GOP campaigns point out that they intend to participate in Telemundo’s early December debate in Nevada. But critics say that’s an unfair trade-off for several reasons — not least because Univision has a far broader reach. First, they note that the candidates are unlikely to skip, say, a CNN debate because they would have ample opportunities to discuss the same issues at a Bloomberg debate instead. Second, they note that the moderator for Telemundo’s forum is Jose Diaz-Balart, whose brothers Mario and Lincoln have served Florida as GOP congressmen and who could be viewed as sympathetic to the candidates.
A GOP source unaligned with any of the presidential hopefuls explained that some Republicans view Univision as an activist network. As such, the source explained, “of course the campaigns were looking for a way out of the debate.”
But NDN’s Rosenberg says Univision’s activism does not trend toward either party. “Univision has a history of taking neither the Republican nor Democratic side. They take the side of their viewers,” he said. “Univision as a network has been very concerned for the welfare of their viewers whose lives have been significantly altered by the escalation in rhetoric and hostile policy toward Latinos.”
Indeed, several sources contacted for this story who are sympathetic to Univision noted that the network’s main anchor, Jorge Ramos — who is slated to moderate the January debate — has been critical of President Obama in newscasts. Nonetheless, the administration has cooperated with the network, and as recently as Friday offered two Cabinet secretaries — Arne Duncan and Hilda Solis — to participate in a Univision town-hall broadcast titled “Your Education is Our Future.”
Support in the Hispanic community for Republican politicians has fallen since President Bush garnered at least 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, according to exit polling and news reports.
In the next year, however, Hispanic voters’ impressions of the GOP began dropping as a Republican-led bill cracking down on illegal immigration passed the House. Exit polls showed about 30 percent of Hispanic voters backed Republicans in the 2006 midterms, and approximately 31 percent voted for John McCain in 2008. Hispanic support of Republicans rose to about 38 percent in 2010.
But an October impreMedia/Latino Decisions poll of Latino voters in 21 states shows that 63 percent approve of the job Obama is doing and 49 percent says they are “certain” to vote for him in 2012. When voters who were leaning in one direction or another were included, 64 percent said they were likely to support the president vs. just 22 percent who said they’d pick the Republican. Romney had the highest favorability rating any of the GOP contenders at 28 percent. (The margin of error was four percentage points.)
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