Is Obama’s Latino policy too driven by Mexican-American labor leaders?
July 21, 2008 at 11:53 am by Wayne GarciaThat is the worry of some South Florida Hispanic leaders, according to a column by the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer. He writes:
There is a fierce behind-the-scenes battle for influence over presumptive Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s Hispanic and Latin American agenda, and some Democratic strategists say that its outcome could determine the result of the November elections.
Some Obama backers in South Florida, in particular, are especially miffed at what they see as excessive power by labor-union-tied, left-leaning Mexican-American leaders at Obama’s Chicago headquarters over the campaign’s nationwide Hispanic and Latin American policy strategies.
In a confidential July 4 memo sent to 25 prominent South Florida Hispanics, former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre — well respected in nationwide Democratic circles — called for creation of a ”South Florida Hispanic policy advisory group” to counterbalance what he perceives as excessive micro-management of state campaigns by Obama’s Chicago headquarters.
FLA Politics rolls his eyes in exasperation:
Let’s be clear: we can’t have icky union people like that in positions of authority. Perhaps Obama should have appointed a Cuban?
These whiners (who couldn’t organize their way out of a cocktail party with their RPOF buds) have the cojones to complain about the efforts of real organizers, the very folks who brought Obama to this point?
And last week I taped an interview with Democratic political consultant Ana Cruz, a Puerto Rican who was a supporter and advance person for Hillary Clinton during Clinton’s failed primary bid. Cruz sat in on a recent meeting with HRC’s top Hispanic advisors with Obama and detected no such overtones but did say that Obama has some work to do to win over Latino leaders, especially in Florida. (Look for that interview soon online and in next week’s print edition.)
