In the Central Coast’s 24th Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Lois Capps is challenged by Republican Abel Maldonado. Here, both candidates are at a September debate sponsored by the San Luis Obispo Times. (Photo: Scott Shafer)

For the past two decades California has been tough political terrain for Republicans, in part because the state’s growing Latino population overwhelmingly supports Democrats.

On the Central Coast, Republican Congressional candidate Abel Maldonado is hoping his Mexican heritage will help bridge that divide by appealing to Latinos and independent voters. Maldonado, a former lieutenant governor, is the kind of candidate the Republican Party covets these days.

“My father and mother came to this country with nothing,” Maldonado says.

He’s the oldest son of migrant workers — Maldonado’s father came from Mexico in 1965 as a guest worker, eventually starting his own farm and growing it into a family business.

“So just imagine me sitting next to my mother picking strawberries in the fields and becoming California’s 47th lieutentant governor,” the boyish 45-year-old says.

Maldonado lost his bid to remain Lieutenant Governor in an election against Gavin Newsom. But now he’s running in the 24^th Congressional District against incumbent Democrat Lois Capps. The newly drawn seat is much more competitive than it was before redistricting. It would seem tailor-made for a moderate Republican businessman like Maldonado.

But the “R” next to his name on the ballot could be a big liability, especially with Latinos, who make up nearly one in five voters in the district. “The Republican Party has not done a good job of communicating with the fastest growing population in America, which happens to be Hispanics,” Maldonado says. “You’re just committing political suicide. It’s just what it is.”

Maldonado’s home town of Santa Maria is 70 percent Latino. At the Center for Employment Training (CET) there, Jessie Chavarria teaches computer skills to a full classroom. Most of the students are immigrants or children of immigrants. And Chavarria says many are simply disengaged from politics.

“Because they don’t see the election and the issues being about them,” Chavarria says. “They think it’s about something else, something that doesn’t really affect them.” But, Chavarria says, the election is all about them — and their future.

“You know they need jobs,” Chavarria notes. “They need jobs to take care of themselves, take care of their families. To Improve their lot in life. Without that, what do they have?”

Chavarria sees it as a vicious cycle — young Latinos think politicians don’t speak to or care about them. So many of them don’t vote — and are consequently ignored.

Down the hall, Jennifer Moran is training her students for jobs in medical fields. Moran keeps voter registration applications in her classroom — and encourages students to use them.

“We complain a lot throughout the terms that we didn’t get this, we didn’t get that,” Moran says. “Did ya vote? ‘No.’ How can you expect to get change if you’re not putting your change into it? You put one grain of salt and that’s all you have, just a grain. Put a bunch of them and you have enough to start cooking, to start getting the pot stirred.”

The director of CET is Gabriel Morales. As a young man, Morales was a Democrat, but now he’s a registered Republican. He traces his conversion back to his faith — and a time when he and others helped build some new churches in Santa Maria.

“It seemed that the people that reached out to us building those churches happened to be Republicans,” Morales remembers. “And then what happened is a lot of the churches I was involved in were Latino churches – and someway, somehow all of us became Republicans.”

Morales will vote for Mitt Romney and probably Abel Maldonado. But he seems conflicted – uncomfortable with a GOP that doesn’t always welcome minorities like him.

That hostility toward immigrants was evidenced by one shopper at the Thursday night Farmer’s Market in downtown San Luis Obispo. Evelyn Roth, a retired haircutter from Santa Maria, was quick to express her view about immigrants who she thinks ignores the melting pot.

“I think we should have only one language,” Roth says. “They should speak English. I’m tired of ‘press two and speak English’ anymore. It’s almost that bad.” But Roth is quick to point out that her criticism does not apply to congressional candidate Abel Maldonado. “He’s fine,” Roth notes, adding “he’s an American — he’s not a Latino. You’re either an illegal or an American. That’s all there is.” 

Latinos might cringe at that characterization. But not all Hispanic voters here supporting Maldonado care so much about his Mexican heritage, either.

Standing behind a table at the market, Pablo Sanchez is describing the award-winning olive oils made on his Paso Robles farm. This fifth generation Mexican American says he’s leaning toward Abel Maldonado — mostly because he seems bipartisan.

“I think the government should stop their infighting,” Sanchez says.  “Get rid of the Republican and Democratic and all that. And become Americans for America.”

Asked if it matters to him that Maldonado is Latino, Sanchez insists it does not. “He is of our race,” Sanchez says. “If he wins, great. I hope he does a good job for us. You know? As long as they look out for America.

But standing right next to Sanchez, his cousin Lucas Hay has a very different take on politics — and Maldonado. “More Latinos that aren’t informed about what’s going on in the debates are more likely to vote for Maldonado because of his last name,” Hay says. “And so they don’t really know exactly the issues going on.”

Hay says he favors Democrats because they seem to care more about helping those with less. He’ll be voting for the incumbent in this congressional race, Democrat Lois Capps.

Polls show the race is tight. If Maldonado ekes out a win, his candidacy could provide a roadmap back to relevance for the Republican Party in California.

Read More: Scott Shafer’s blog post — Central Coasters Hungry for Substance, Sick of Campaign Negativity

Daniela Simunovic, an organizer for Communities for a New California, works with Edgar Acevedo and another young canvasser to get out the vote in the central valley town of Sanger. (Photo: Alice Daniel)

Daniela Simunovic is an organizer for the non-profit group Communities for a New California. She’s advising students who are about to walk a neighborhood to register voters.

“What are you going to do if somebody says they don’t want to vote?” she asks her students.

“Ask them why not?” comes a reply.

“In a friendly tone, of course,” says one of the students.

These canvassers are working in the small Central Valley town of Sanger, where only half of the 12,000 potential Latino voters are registered. And even those who are registered aren’t voting. Just 1,200 Latino voters — out of those 12,000 potentials — cast a ballot in the 2010 election. While Latino voters have become an integral part of California politics, participation lags across the Valley.

“If we were able to mobilize all the voters, we would really be able to change some outcomes in some elections on the issues that are important for our communities,” Simunovic says.

Those issues, she believes, include propositions on the November ballot. That’s why Communities for a New California is also conducting a fall campaign to inform Latino voters on propositions it feels are key to their interests, starting with labor rights and education.

“Like Proposition 32,  which will take away the power of working class people and unions to play in the political process,” Simunovic says, “to Proposition 30 which has the potential if passed to …raise significant revenues for our communities.”

Proposition 30 is Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike, which this year’s budget is counting on to avoid education cuts. Prop. 32 would ban the use of payroll deductions for political donations, which is expected to restrict the political influence of unions.

In addition, Latino candidates are running in two close congressional races in the Valley. In Congressional District 10, farmworker-turned-astronaut Jose Hernandez is taking on Republican incumbent Jeff Denham; in Congressional District 21, in the South Valley, Hispanic chamber of commerce president John Hernandez faces state assemblyman David Valadao.

Both Jose Hernandez and John Hernandez are Democrats. And Latino voters in California favor the Democratic Party over the Republican Party by a margin of three to one in voter registration.

But the drive to register Latinos is more about giving this under-represented community a voice than it is about party affiliation, say organizers like Arnulfo De La Cruz, California Director of the non-partisan Mi Familia Vota. And efforts to engage voters need to increase in the Central Valley, he says.

“Traditionally the resources are given to our more urban centers like the Los Angeles County area, the Bay Area — San Francisco and Oakland,” De La Cruz says. “So I do think the Central Valley has been neglected.”

More than 250,000 eligible Latino voters in the San Joaquin Valley have not registered, De La Cruz explains, adding that his organization is engaged in a long-term collaboration effort with churches, unions and community organizations in the Central Valley to make Latinos a “more powerful political force.”

If this effort is successful, he says, “both parties — both Republicans and Democrats — would have to take into account that there’s this electorate that hasn’t been active in the past, that’s now kind of bolstered and strong and participating.”

Back in Sanger, Simunovic’s student organizers are busy going door to door. One of those students, 22-year-old Edgar Acevedo, grew up in Sanger and believes Latino voters there have been neglected. He first became a voter himself when someone knocked on his door wielding a form four years ago. Now he knows that those who participate in the political process have a say even in small-town politics.

“They decide what streets get redone, what schools get more money, you know, this and that,” Acevedo says. “I grew up in this town, and I’d like to see you know good things come to it.”

As he knocks on doors, he’s met with plenty of resistance. So far today, he’s been turned away at three houses. But Acevedo thinks it’s worth the effort. At the fourth residence, success: he helps 45-year-old Arturo Daona fill out his voter registration form.

Lisa Garcia Bedolla is Chair of the Center for Latino Policy Research at UC Berkeley. She worked on a research project that evaluated past get-out-the-vote efforts. Voting is habit forming, she says, citing research from the last presidential election.

“Having been contacted once in a previous electoral cycle made you 30 percentage points more likely to vote in the 2008 presidential election,” Bedolla says. “That’s a pretty significant increase in the propensity to vote.”

Still, most campaigns do not mobilize unlikely or low propensity voters. They also overlook another universe of potential voters: people who aren’t citizens but could be. There are more than 180,000 legal immigrants in the valley from Mexico alone, among them Acevedo’s parents.

“I’m trying to help them out but it’s tough. It’s expensive also,” Acevedo says. “So don’t think it’s just like ‘oh you know I’m going to go take the test and become a citizen.’ It takes time and money.”

Mi Familia Vota is beginning to address these needs in the Valley, says De La Cruz. It’s not if the Valley’s going to change, he adds, it’s when.

(Anibal Ortiz: KPCC)

Seeking to gain traction with Latino voters, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney traveled to Los Angeles Monday to deliver his pitch to the annual meeting of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m convinced the Republican Party is the rightful home for Hispanic Americans,” Romney told more than 1,000 people during a noontime lunch at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in downtown L.A.

The GOP may be Latinos’ “rightful home,” but an NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Telemundo poll last month found them still preferring Democrats. The survey found President Obama leads Romney 63 to 28 percent among Latinos.

Romney sought to close that gap by touting his commitment to lower taxes and fewer regulations. He told the group of business leaders that Latinos have more reason than most to dump Obama: “While national unemployment is at 8.1 percent, Hispanic unemployment is at over ten percent.”

“I like the message,” said Leo Baron, who owns a Texas software company. “He’s a businessman and I’m a businessman. I can relate more to it.”

Romney sought to dispel the perception among many Latinos that the GOP is anti-immigrant. He pointed out that one million people legally enter the U.S. every year.

“I like that,” Romney said. “I want to preserve our heritage of robust, legal immigration.”

Romney quickly added he opposes any amnesty for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the country. The room was silent as Romney warned that providing a path to legalization would threaten legal immigration.

“I do think he is still a little disconnected from the majority of Hispanics in the country,” said Victor Arias, who works for Korn-Ferry International in Dallas. Still, the independent voter appreciated Romney making the effort to attend the convention, even if he won’t vote for him.

“It signals that the Hispanic community should matter to the Republican Party,” Arias said. “It hasn’t mattered in the past — it hasn’t seemed like it.”

Bernadette Medrano, a registered Republican who runs an education non-profit in Santa Ana, said she was unimpressed by her party’s candidate. For her, Romney remains a bit of a mystery.

“He’s a man who hasn’t produced his taxes,” Medrano said. “We know very little about him.”

President Obama addressed the convention via a short taped video message.

“We cut taxes for small businesses 18 times,” the president said. “We helped Hispanic-owned businesses access more than $3.8 billion in new loans.”

Outside the convention, about 75 young protesters chanted and held signs that read: “Veto Romney, not The Dream Act.”  Romney opposes the measure. Obama supports it.

Earlier, a group of local Democratic Party elected leaders, including Assembly Speaker John Perez and State Senator Alex Padilla, spoke out against Romney. Padilla criticized Romney’s proposal to reduce benefits in the federal Earned Income Tax Credit.

“That hurts middle class families,” Padilla said. “That hurts Latino families.”

Romney has defended the plan as a way to reduce the deficit.