US Presidential Candidates Address Hispanic Conference

The focus of the U.S. presidential race turned to America's large andgrowing Hispanic population Tuesday, with both major party candidatesaddressing a national gathering of Hispanic leaders. VOA's Kent Kleinreports from Washington.

Hispanics are America's largestminority group, accounting for about 15 percent of the U.S.population. Although many Hispanics do not vote, either because theylack citizenship or are not of legal voting age, they represent acritical voting bloc in many states that could decide the Novemberelection.

The presumed Republican presidential nominee, SenatorJohn McCain, addressed the League of United Latin American Citizens inWashington Tuesday. He said all Americans, including Hispanics, willbenefit from his economic plan to keep taxes low.

"There are twomillion Latino-owned businesses in America. The first consideration weshould have when debating tax policy is how we can help those companiesgrow and increase the prosperity of the millions of American familieswhose economic security depends on their success. It is a terriblemistake to raise taxes during an economic downturn," he said.

Laterin the day, McCain's Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, told thegroup this year's election is about giving all Americans a fair chanceat the American dream. "We have to make sure that we have a governmentthat knows that a problem facing any American is a problem facing allAmericans," he said.

Obama has said he wants to reduce taxes formiddle-income earners. But he has pledged to repeal many of the taxcuts enacted by President Bush. Obama says those cuts favor thewealthy.

Historically, as a group, Hispanics have tended tovote Democratic, sometimes by as much as a two-to-one ratio. ButPresident Bush made significant inroads among Hispanics in hissuccessful presidential bids. He won more than 40-percent of theHispanic vote in 2004.

Today polls show a significant drop inHispanic backing for the Republican Party. Many analysts blame this onthe hard-line stance of many prominent Republicans on fighting illegalimmigration.

But Senator McCain is a longtime backer ofcomprehensive immigration reform that would provide a legal path tocitizenship for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrantsresiding in the United States. Obama has taken a similarposition.

In his speech, McCain noted that Congress has yet topass such reform, but said the cause is not lost. He said immigrantshave greatly contributed to America's prosperity and nationalcharacter, and will continue to do so. "I know this country, which Ilove more than almost anything, would be the poorer were we deprived ofpatriotism, industry, and decency of those millions of Americans whosefamilies came here from other countries in our hemisphere. I will honortheir contributions to America for as long as I live," he said.

Obamaaccused McCain of backing away from comprehensive immigration reformduring the primary election season. "But when he started running forhis party's nomination, he abandoned his courageous stands, and saidthat he would not even support his own legislation if it came up for avote. Well, for eight long years we have had a president who has madeall kinds of promises to Latinos on the campaign trail, but failed tolive up to them in the White House, and we cannot afford that anymore,"he said.

In the Democratic presidential primary contests,Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama's rival, SenatorHillary Clinton. But a recent poll shows Hispanics favor Obama overMcCain 59 to 29 percent.