Florida's Latino community vote

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(Tell us where you went in Florida and what you found out about how new Latino voters could affect the vote.) I spent some time in Miami and central Florida. In the last election, George Bush did very well with Latino voters in Florida but that was four years ago. EG has been tracking this shift towards the Democrats this year. (JM: Why has this shift happened?) I think a number of issues: the economy and especially among recent arrivals, the employment has been very tough. But Cuban-American voters have been historically Republican and there's also a segment which has been feeling the full brunt of the economic downturn. So the economy is taking its toll on Hispanic voters in the state. (LM: When you say Cuban-Americans have historically voted Republican, what is the fact of U.S.-Cuban relations doing to their vote?) That's an interesting question because for some reason there is about a 20% sector within that population which hasn't yielded the results that were expected. So with younger Cuban-Americans there's a desire for change in relations towards Cuba. Obama's position towards Cuba has attracted a lot of this population also. (JM: Fidel Castro praised Obama today. Does this reverberate in the Cuban-American population?) These comments were not well timed and came very late, so by and large it's not helping Obama but it is very late so it won't make a significant difference.
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