Latinos test voting muscle
Nev. caucuses could demonstrate demographic's influence
LAS VEGAS - Fifty-seven stories above the glittering Strip, Elodia Hernández makes her living by staying behind the scenes.
The housekeeper fluffs pillows and mops floors in the Wynn Las Vegas hotel after guests have decamped to the slot machines, blackjack tables, four-star restaurants, and glamorous shows. She disappears to a hidden workroom for lunch, and slips out a back door at the end of her shift.
But now Hernández and thousands of Latino voters find themselves squarely in the spotlight in Nevada's presidential caucuses tomorrow, hoping to capitalize on newfound clout that could help tilt a state that went for President Bush the past two elections toward the Democrats in November. The caucuses, closely contested by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, will also offer a first look at the influence of Hispanic voters on a national campaign and a hint of how the race in other Western states with burgeoning Latino populations might unfold.
Political analysts say the Republican focus on cracking down on illegal immigration could rouse a voting bloc that some observers call "a sleeping giant" and cost the party votes among Latinos in Nevada and nationwide. Others are skeptical that Latinos will vote in large numbers, pointing to low turnout in the past.
"It's so good that we can't be ignored anymore," said Hernández, 42, who believes that until now, politicians felt they could discount the concerns of Latino voters. "We've been ignored, abused, unnoticed, and mistreated for so long."
Latinos are the nation's biggest minority group, and although they are only 9 percent of the nation's eligible electorate, they could play a pivotal role in battleground states like Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, and Colorado - states Bush carried by 5 percentage points or less in 2004.
In Nevada, Latinos are one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the nation's fastest-growing state. The Silver State is a cantankerous and fiercely independent place where Democrats hunt bighorns, prostitution is legal in many counties, and nobody likes taxes. And the political landscape is shifting; once a GOP majority state, Nevada now has more registered Democrats than Republicans. Nationally, Latinos tend to vote Democrat, but voter breakdowns in Nevada are unavailable.
It is against this backdrop that Nevada is booming - and Latinos are fueling much of the growth. Drawn by higher wages and less expensive housing than in states like California, and plentiful jobs in casinos and construction, Nevada's Latino population has soared from more than 120,000 in 1990 to more than 600,000 today. Latinos make up about 24 percent of the state's 2.5 million residents, a mix of immigrants and the native-born. About 1 in 5 Nevadans was born in another country.
Their influence is everywhere. Latinos ferry trays of Cornish hens to diners at the Excalibur, scrub the marble floors at The Venetian, and thrust invitations to girlie clubs to tourists strolling on the Strip. Latinos own taco stands, bakeries, and restaurants along Eastern Avenue, the heart of the Latino community in Las Vegas.
They are the biggest group in Clark County public schools, which includes Las Vegas, and hold about a dozen political offices in the state. For the first time in 2006, Nevadans elected a Mexican immigrant, Ruben Kihuen, to the State Assembly.
Eager to capitalize on this shift in the heavily Latino West, Democrats, then Republicans, moved up the state's caucuses and are campaigning hard for the Latino vote. Obama won the endorsement of a key labor union, is sending text messages in Spanish, and is rallying with workers, chanting "Sí, se puede," or "Yes, we can."
Clinton, who led Obama among Latinos by significant margins in national polls last fall, is sending bilingual workers into neighborhoods, campaigning with former US housing secretary Henry Cisneros and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, and has won the endorsement of El Mundo, a Spanish-language newspaper in Nevada.
"This is the first state that has a really diverse population," said Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, director of Hispanic communications for the Clinton campaign. "We knew from the beginning that the Latino vote here is going to be very important."
Obama scored an early coup last week by winning the endorsement of the Culinary Workers Union, a powerful group of 60,000 waiters, busboys, and other casino workers that has tripled in size since 1990. Now, Latinos make up 45 percent of its membership.
Union officials have helped 7,000 people apply for US citizenship since 2001, and they have won the staunch loyalty of members by extracting benefits from wealthy casinos like no-premium health insurance.
Red-shirted union representatives are fanning out to workers' homes to make sure they back Obama. One recent day, union worker Enrique Vicke drove his truck to depressed neighborhoods in North Las Vegas, where boxy stucco houses sit on dirt yards. Several union members, who said they had been leaning toward Clinton, promised to back Obama.
Vicke reminded workers how the union helped them move up and that they should stick together.
Vicke, an immigrant from Mexico, earns $11.60 an hour waiting tables at the Treasure Island hotel, but he has health insurance and owns a condominium. Hernández might make $8 an hour in California, but in Las Vegas she earns about $14 an hour. She owns her own home, too.
"We got opportunities here, you know?" Vicke said. "That's why we're fighting for the people."
At the union hall, posters call it "El Sueño en Las Vegas," or The Las Vegas Dream.
But Juan Peña, a 59-year-old food server at the Excalibur hotel, said he was torn between Obama and Clinton, worried about who would help Latinos more. Nevada's high school dropout rate, and foreclosure rate, one of the highest in the nation, and other problems make him anxious for his children.
"To me it's very important to vote for someone who is concerned about our people," he said.
Some are skeptical of the Latino voting power. Many Latinos are ineligible to vote because they are too young or aren't US citizens. Although Latinos represent 12 percent of eligible voters in the state, politicians say they haven't turned out in significant numbers in the past.
Gary Reese, the mayor pro tem of Las Vegas, has run a barbershop at Eastern Avenue and Bonanza Road for 44 years, and watched his district change from mostly white to 70 percent Latino. But about 20 percent of his residents vote.
"They don't get out and vote like they should," Reese, 66, said as he trimmed a customer's hair.
But others say Nevada's new position in the spotlight, and the issues in the current campaign, might bolster turnout. The Pew Hispanic Center poll last fall indicated that education and healthcare topped the list of Latinos' concerns, but many were increasingly concerned about immigration.
Nevada has also mirrored the national debate over illegal immigration, which could inspire some voters.
Although Nevadans have been more tolerant, aware that immigrants are building hotels and fueling growth, even here state lawmakers recently battled over bills that unsuccessfully tried to make English the state's official language, among other measures.
"If you poke the sleeping giant long enough, it may awaken and see a collective identity," said Kenneth Fernandez, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com. 