Wooing Hispanic voters, McCain starts Spanish-language website

On Cinco de Mayo, John McCain reached out yesterday to Hispanic voters, launching a Spanish-language campaign website and acknowledging that the harsh anti-immigration tone during the Republican primaries harmed his party's image among Latinos.

The Arizona senator championed an overhaul of immigration laws, including a path to citizenship, but the package failed to get through Congress. Under attack from GOP rivals who called him too lenient on illegal immigration, McCain declared that Americans would not back reform until the borders are secure.

McCain told reporters in Phoenix that Hispanic citizens want America's borders secured and illegal immigrants to be treated humanely. He said poor Hispanic Americans are vulnerable to losing their jobs to the lower wages accepted by illegal immigrants.

Democrats and Republicans are courting Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority group, who could play a key role in November.

McCain issued a statement recognizing Cinco de Mayo, which marks a key military victory in 1862 on the path to Mexico's independence, and noted the importance of the United States' relationship with Mexico and "the many contributions Mexican-Americans have made to our society, culture, security, and economy." He also announced he will attend an important Hispanic convention, La Raza, in July.

The Democratic National Committee, however, accused McCain of double-talk on immigration, calling it "indicative of a major problem the GOP nominee faces heading to the general election, trying to both appease the party's conservative base while trying to reach out to moderate voters and Hispanics who have been targeted with ugly Republican Party attacks on the immigration issue."

GLOBE STAFF AND AP

Political action committee violates contribution limits

During its cash-starved days before the New Hampshire primary, John McCain's presidential campaign got some help from a political action committee set up to help congressional candidates who would fight wasteful spending in Washington.

But the Porkbuster political action committee set up by US Representative Jeff Flake violated federal contribution limits and, by its own account, wasted $2,100 to rent Granite State hotel rooms that were never used.

In response to inquiries by the Globe, Steve Voeller, treasurer of the political action committee, said the excess in-kind contributions were an oversight and notified the McCain campaign, which said it wrote a $1,896.52 check to reimburse the committee for the excess contribution.

Flake, an Arizona Republican, set up the political action committee last year, but McCain is the only beneficiary so far. In reports covering last November and January, the campaign reported in-kind donations of airfare and lodging costs of about $4,200. The expenses were incurred by Flake and aides who campaigned in New Hampshire for McCain, Voeller said. Under federal law, the political action committee has a $2,300 limit on in-kind contributions to a candidate.

Presidential campaigns routinely pay the expenses of their surrogates out of their own funds, but McCain's campaign was surviving on a line of credit.

BRIAN C. MOONEY

Voter registration climbs across US, survey suggests

DURHAM, N.C. - Voter excitement, always up before a presidential election, is pushing registration through the roof so far this year - with more than 3.5 million people rushing to join in the historic balloting, according to a national Associated Press survey.

Figures are up for blacks, women, and young people. Rural and city. South and North.

Overall, the survey found that more than 1 in 65 adult Americans signed up to vote in just the first three months of the year. And in the 21 states that were able to provide comparable data, new registrations have soared about 64 percent from the same three months in the 2004 campaign.

Voters are flocking to the most open election in half a century, inspired to support the first female president, the first black commander-in-chief, or the oldest leader of the free world ever elected. Also, the Democratic race has lasted longer than expected, creating interest in states typically ignored in an election year.

Some Democratic Party leaders bemoan the long battle. But there are clear signs that the registration boom is favoring their party.

ASSOCIATED PRESS