The Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections (Pew Hispanic Center)

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http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=130

11.3.2010
The Latino Vote in the 2010 Elections

by Mark Hugo Lopez, Associate Director, Pew Hispanic Center
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Tuesday's midterm elections were historic for Hispanics. For the first time ever, three Latino candidates-all of them Republicans-won top statewide offices. In New Mexico, voters elected the nation's first Latina governor, Republican Susana Martinez. In Nevada, Republican Brian Sandoval won the governor's race and became Nevada's first Hispanic governor. And in Florida, Republican Marco Rubio won the U.S. Senate race.

Despite these big top-of-the-ticket wins for Republican Hispanic candidates, Latino voters continued their strong support for Democratic candidates nationwide. National exit poll results show that Democrats had a nearly two-to-one advantage-64% versus 34%-over Republicans in U.S. House races among Latino voters. In other statewide races, Democratic candidates won the Latino vote, usually by wide margins. more

[glowing]

1. It's a trend that the republicans will end up hurting themselves with.

[flamingdem]

2. I heard on Pacifica that one million more Latinos voted this time than last

Not sure if I have that 100% correct.

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3. California went its own way

In one declarative night, California on Tuesday confirmed its status as a political world unto itself, zigging determinedly Democratic while most of the rest of the country zagged Republican. Voters not only restored the governor's office to Democratic hands, they may have given Democrats a sweep of statewide offices, though uncounted ballots could still shift one race.

Driving much of the success — and distancing the state from the national GOP tide, according to exit polls — was a surge in Latino voters. They made up 22% of the California voter pool, a record tally that mortally wounded many Republicans.

Latinos were more likely than other voters to say it was the governor's race that impelled them to vote, and they sided more than 2 to 1 with Democrat Jerry Brown over Meg Whitman, the Republican whose campaign had been embroiled in a controversy over illegal immigration. Once at the polls, they voted for other Democrats as well.

California Republicans had multiple reasons for head-shaking on Wednesday. For decades, the state party has squabbled over whether success would come more easily to candidates running as conservatives or those who presented a more moderate face to the state's sizeable bloc of independent, centrist voters. This year they tried both. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina ran a firmly conservative race and Whitman took a more moderate road.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-california-20101104,0,1915403.story