ARE HISPANICS SOURING ON DEMS? – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  One part of conventional political wisdom holds that Hispanic voters will vote Democratic.  Generally, they do.  But it's been pointed out that George W. Bush, when he was governor of Texas, regularly got a good chunk of the Hispanic vote.  Now Michael Barone examines whether Hispanics are losing their feeling for the Democratic Party.  From the Washington Examiner: 

It’s looking like a tough offyear election for Democrats, with their Senate majority at serious risk and their chances of gaining House seats down toward zero.

Every party has a bad offyear sometimes; Republicans did in 2006. Sooner or later they recover. But in the crosstabs of polls and in party strategists’ moves I see evidence that one group Democrats have been counting on is moving away from them: Hispanics.

Hispanics voted 71 percent for Barack Obama in 2012, 20 points above his national average of 51 percent. According to Gallup, Hispanics’ latest Obama job approval has sunk to 44 percent, just 3 points above the national average.

You probably haven’t heard much about this because Hispanics are scarce in all but one of the states with serious Senate races this year.

The one exception is Colorado, where the 2012 exit poll said 14 percent of voters were Hispanic. Non-Hispanic whites there voted 54 to 44 percent for Mitt Romney. But Hispanics voted 75 to 23 percent for Barack Obama, providing all of his popular vote margin and more.

In the last decade liberals have surged to victories in all top-of-the-ticket races in a state that once seemed safely Republican. This year that chain may well be broken. Incumbent Sen. Mark Udall trails Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in the RealClearPolitics average of recent polls and is at 44 percent, well below 50. Incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper leads former Rep. Bob Beauprez by only 0.4 percent.

And...

Evidently issues dear to the heart of affluent gentry liberals — gun control, environmental restrictions, abortion absolutism — are not all that appealing to many Hispanic voters. Another example: Abortion absolutist Wendy Davis lost 26 Hispanic counties to a nuisance candidate in Texas’s May Democratic primary. Some Hispanics own guns, others seek work in industries shut down by environmentalists.

COMMENT:  That is good news, but Republicans must make direct appeals to the Hispanic community to build momentum.  Historically, Republicans have done a poor job reaching out to minorities.  That must change, given American demographics. 

Recent polling showed that Hispanics aren't wedded to the Democratic Party.  Let us, as sinners, arrange for the divorce.

October 16, 2014