Republican Anti-Immigration Rhethoric Hurts The GOP

On the same day the the Pew Hispanic poll and the LA Times released the details of a new poll showing Hispanic voters are more inclined to vote Democratic than they have been since the late 1990's, Governor Dean met with Reverend Luis Cortes to call on the Republican presidential candidates to tone down their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

We also launched a website documenting the Republican's over the top anti-immigration rhetoric from the most recent elections last month.

The Pew Poll found that the gap between Democrats and Republicans among Hispanic voters are growing, partly because of the rhetoric used by Republicans as they search for a wedge issue to divide Americans.

Some 57% of Hispanic registered voters now call themselves Democrats or say they lean to the Democratic Party, while just 23% align with the Republican Party -- meaning there is now a 34-percentage-point gap in partisan affiliation among Latinos. In July 2006, the same gap measured just 21 percentage points -- whereas back in 1999, it had been 33 percentage points.