Puerto Ricans' electoral impact grows in Florida
Elizabeth Cuevas-Neunder holds a Puerto Rican flag at a Republican campaign event at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa on January 27, 2012 in Miami, Florida.
/ Getty ImagesPlus, the housing was relatively cheap: In 1978, a company called Landstar Homes started building thousands of houses in the area, which it marketed in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican communities in New York. Today, what was once a rural county is dotted with tract-housing subdivisions and main streets on which the local Century 21 office features a sign reading, "agents needed - bilingual a plus." Osceola County, which encompasses Kissimmee, is now 46 percent Latino and rising, and most of the Latino population is Puerto Rican.
Ortiz, a nurse, came to the area when Jeb Bush was governor. She likes Bush, who has been at the forefront of an effort to convince Republicans to better reach out to Latino voters. A generation ago, the civil rights fight pushed African-Americans into the arms of Democrats; more recently, the GOP's immigration rhetoric has prompted Latinos, a fast-growing voting bloc that will help decide this swing state and others, to rally behind President Obama. Yet while it may already be too late for Republicans to turn the tide with Mexican-Americans and many other Latino groups, Puerto Ricans are a different story.
Since they hail from a U.S. territory, Puerto Ricans are less likely to be chose sides based on immigration policy. And while they tend to support Democrats, voters in Puerto Rico elected a conservative Republican governor in Luis Fortuno, who was given a prominent speaking spot at the Republican National Convention. (While Puerto Rico has no say in the general election, Puerto Ricans can vote in presidential elections soon after relocating to the states.)
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"Everyone is going to have insurance in the whole country," she said. "Good. That's good. But what about the taxes? Who's going to pay for it?"
The political map of Florida is relatively simple: The panhandle in the north votes Republican by a wide margin, while the southern part of the state (with the exception of Miami's Cuban population) swings Democrat. The battle for the state's 29 electoral votes is largely fought here in the middle, in the area known as the I-4 corridor, where 43 percent of all Florida voters live. Anchored by Tampa and Orlando, it is the largest swing area of the largest swing state, which is why Republicans held their nominating convention in Tampa despite the risk of a hurricane. On Wednesday, Bill Clinton is scheduled to hold a "grassroots event" in Orlando to drum up support for the president. And next week, both candidates are expected to hold campaign events in Tampa, though public events have not been announced.
Florida is nothing if not a swing state: There have been five presidential elections here since 1992, with two going to the Democrats, two to the Republicans, and one resulting in that epic mess in 2000. Over those five races, 32.5 million votes have been cast for president in Florida -- and the difference between the parties in total votes is just .017 percent.
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The same goes for Mexican Americansif Communism had taken hold in Mexico.
If president J.F. Kennedy had not agreed with the USSR to leave Fidel Castro alone (not overthrow), Florida would be 100% Democrats.
If president L. Johnson had not signed the Civil Right Act in 1966, the Confederate States would be 100% Democrats.
In each case, Democrats pay and continue to pay the price of Progress.
However, Mexican-Americans are and will populate all American states including these southern states for the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party has a Bright and Solid Future in America. It is already happening.
Have you ever heard of a Catholid that was in favor of the Constitutional proper decision of Roe v Wade?
Have you ever heard of an illegal alien that was not Catholid? They are either Catholid or dead!
Have you ever heard of a Catholid in congress that voted to close the borders?
Have you ever heard of a Catholid that used the Constitution for other than the "freedom of worship"?
Have you ever heard of a Catholid that stated the Constitution is the law of the US, and they believe in it?
Have you found any nation south of the US border that allowed gun ownership?
Have you ever heard of a successful Catholic nation? Think PIIGS, France and everything south of the US. .
If you want the borders secure, or for women to have rights, are you going to vote for any Catholid, be they R or D?
I am against Abortion but I am NOT a 1 issue WE THE PEOPLE. The Abortion issue can be taken care of after the Conquesta.
Ask the Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev what he did after becoming the president of the Communist Soviet Union in 1990.