Spanish-language Democratic presidential debate

[flashl]

Hispanic news a GOP liability

Sunday's Spanish-language Democratic presidential debate] is a coming-of-age that underscores a new political reality: Spanish broadcast news has persuasive power, it differs markedly from English-language programs, and thanks to the immigration debate, it has hurt Republicans.

"It's utterly different. Utterly and completely different," said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Project. "Same day, same markets, totally different news. Utterly different priorities, different images, different geographic focus."

Although Spanish-language press is not monolithic, news coverage, and particularly political coverage, tends to focus on advocacy for its community, analysts said.

It's new territory that Democrats have been quick to grasp, deploying Spanish-speaking lawmakers to make the party's case on education, national defense and, most recently, immigration.

Fernando J. Guerra, a professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles who studies the Hispanic electorate, said that means Spanish-language voters got a steady diet of news that reflected poorly on Republicans. That, in turn, helped Democrats.

"You can see it in that, during that time, those immigrants who become naturalized citizens who then register to vote, register at a much higher percentage for Democrats," he said.

[Kolesar]

1. I remember tuning into Univision during the start of the war

just to see if anybody was reporting on what was really going on. I was encouraged that I could see some meaningful coverage. I could tell their choice of stories. No, I could not understand a word.