Late last night I checked out the Lakers-Nuggets game on ESPN. During a break in the action, suddenly a political ad was played for my Cox Cable area’s viewers — in Spanish. Makes sense, no? The Lakers after all represent Los Angeles, a large Spanish-speaking market.
But wait. I live in Northern Virginia. The ad had nothing to do with California’s coming propositions. It was for Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Tim Kaine. There are enough registered Hispanic voters in this area to reach out to? That’s not something you hear much about.
Instead, the impression is always that most Hispanics here are presumed to be undocumented and thus not citizens, which is probably unfair to many thousands who have become naturalized. Regardless, Democrats must consider them all their own, no questions asked. Otherwise, why not attract them in English?
