Thursday, November 8, 2007

Hispanic Journalists Weigh In on 2008 Race

Home from Utah, recovering from the loss (and jet lag), and diving back into the game:

Juan Tornoe of Hispanic Trending reports on Hispanic PR Wire's recently released poll which reveals Hispanic journalists' "hot button issues" for the 2008 presidential election. Immigration tops the list, with 47% of respondents claiming it as the top issue for Latino voters, followed by the war in Iraq, health care and the economy, and all the way at the bottom....education, with a mere 11% listing it as a top issue.

A few months back, the National Council of la Raza and the Ed in 08 campaign conducted a similar poll, but found the opposite results. 89% of their poll respondents indicated that improving public education should be a "top priority" of our nation's next president and that education ranked higher on their list of concerns than health care and the war.

So what's the disconnect?

Of course, this could be simple demographics issue - the Hispanic PR Wire poll was obviously not random - but it could also signify more than that.

What is the disconnect between Latino voters from different socio-economic classes? What is the disconnect between the Latino media and the rest of the Latino population?

Maybe we need a little more exploration into what "The Latino Vote" really means - and how varied it can be.

No comments: