Legion of Angels News Archive

GREELEY, Colo. — On Sunday mornings, Rose Chavez volunteers to greet people at New Hope Christian Fellowship Church, a Hispanic congregation that worships in the renovated former headquarters of a meatpacking company on the outskirts of town, surrounded by fields of cabbage and corn.

Far afield, yes, but also far from ignored by the major party presidential campaigns.

Like most Hispanic evangelical and Pentecostal voters, Chavez backed George W. Bush four years ago. She believed his values lined up with hers.

Now, with two weeks to another election, the 33-year-old is part of a Hispanic Protestant defection to Democrat Barack Obama, a shift that could prove key in battleground states with large Hispanic populations such as Colorado, Nevada, Florida and New Mexico.

“A lot of people say Obama doesn’t have much experience, but bringing the troops home is a big issue,” said Chavez, who works at an employment staffing agency. “They don’t need to be there anymore. We were tricked into believing in Bush and his ways.”

As the economy and sour mood of the country conspire against Republican John McCain, analysts point to other factors hurting him with Hispanic Protestants, who accounted for about one-third of all Hispanic voters in 2004.

The list includes an unpopular war, an inability to connect on a personal level with Hispanics as Bush did, the marginalization of social issues like abortion and gay marriage and simmering anger about Republican rhetoric on immigration.

A report in late July from the Pew Hispanic Center found Obama leading McCain two-to-one among non-Catholic Hispanics who affiliate with a religion - in other words, mostly evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Other numbers suggest a closer race. Gallup daily tracking polls from Sept. 1 through Friday show Obama leading McCain 47 percent to 43 percent among non-Catholic Hispanic Christians.

In 2004, exit polls showed 63 percent of Hispanic Protestants supported Bush. In 2000, that demographic group supported Democrat Al Gore by a similar margin. Hispanic Catholics have largely remained loyal to the Democratic Party, so evangelicals and Pentecostals are swinging the Hispanic vote.

“I find it powerfully refreshing, enforcing the reality that we’re not going to be the white evangelical community,” said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. “We’re not the Christian right. We will not be the extension of one political party and we won’t be exploited and used for victory and then ignored.”

Rodriguez and others said the immigration debate that hit a fever pitch in 2006 caused the shift back to the Democrats.

“We blamed the Republican Party for the immigration reform debacle, and we blamed them for xenophobic rhetoric,” said Rodriguez, who added that he will probably vote for McCain anyway because Obama is too liberal on abortion and marriage. “That pushed Hispanic evangelicals to look at ourselves.”

Other factors are at work, as well. Hispanics remain conservative on abortion and gay rights but have shifted to the left since 2004 against the Iraq War and for increased government services and stricter environmental regulations, according to summer polling from John Green of the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics analyzed by the religion Web site Beliefnet.

The Rev. Wilfredo DeJesus, pastor of New Life Covenant church in Chicago, a Pentecostal Assemblies of God megachurch, voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Now an Obama endorser and surrogate, DeJesus has promoted the candidate on a call-in radio show in Orlando, Fla., and met with pastors in Goshen, Ind.

“When you hear a Democratic candidate say that Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior, I don’t remember the last time a Democrat spoke like that,” DeJesus said. “For the Republican party to throw out one word - abortion … I’m still pro-life, I believe in the sanctity of marriage … but I’m not going to be put in a corner.”

The Rev. Mark Gonzales of Dallas, chairman of the McCain campaign’s national Hispanic advisory council for Hispanic evangelicals, believes abortion and gay marriage remain the most important values issues for Hispanics. He, and others, say it’s unfair to tie McCain to the GOP’s harsher anti-immigration voices.

McCain defied Republican hard-liners - and won admiration from Hispanics - for co-sponsoring an immigration bill that included a path to citizenship. But he lost some of that support in speaking more forcefully about border security after the bill was twice defeated.

“The party has a major job to do in terms of repairing the damage with the Latino community,” said Gonzales, who is also heading a first-of-its-kind, nonpartisan voter registration drive at Hispanic evangelical churches. “Hispanics are very loyal. It’s a legacy, being Democratic in the Hispanic community. There is still a learning curve.”

Few places have felt the sting of the immigration battle like Greeley, a city of 90,000 an hour’s drive north of Denver. On Dec. 12, 2006, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement staged a pre-dawn raid at the city’s Swift & Co. meatpacking plant, resulting in 261 arrests.

At New Hope Christian Fellowship Church, staff said attendance at the Spanish-language service suffered from rumors the church would be raided next.

“Everybody knew somebody who was picked up,” said Rigoberto Magnana, pastor of the Assemblies of God congregation. “All of us knew someone who was affected.”

Ask Magnana’s members what is guiding their vote, however, and immigration has faded behind making sure there’s food on the table and a roof overhead.

Even before the recent economic tailspin, last summer’s Pew survey found immigration was an important voting issue for Hispanics, but behind education, cost of living, jobs, health care and crime.

An emerging voice among Hispanic evangelical pastors, Magnana is a registered Republican who’s been courted by both campaigns. While he said he won’t tell people how to vote, Magnana said he’ll probably vote for McCain because he agrees with him philosophically and believes McCain can lead through crisis.

“I have to be honest,” Magnana said. “There’s still the issue of where Obama stands as far as his belief system. Where does he really stand? You see it on the Internet, saying ‘My Muslim faith,’ whatever. I would like for him to come out and say, ‘Look, I want to dispel this myth.’”

Obama did utter the words “my Muslim faith” in a September television interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos but corrected himself. Magnana said he was unaware that Obama has professed his Christianity repeatedly and explained how his Christian faith shapes his politics. Nevertheless, a Pew poll in September found 13 percent of all voters - and 19 percent of McCain backers - believed Obama is a Muslim.

Seated in a conference room after services, a half-dozen members of Magnana’s church expressed ambivalence about the election.

“Obama doesn’t have the morals, and he doesn’t seem to have the love of country I think a president should have,” said Esther Gomez, 65, a retired grocery store meat-wrapper.

But Gomez, a registered Democrat who voted for Bush in the last two elections, also has soured on Republicans. “It’s the illegals,” she said. “I don’t like how they’ve been treated.”

“I believe Obama does have morals,” said Carla Ortiz, 48, the church receptionist. “But he has to be so careful of what he says because everything gets distorted. It happens with McCain, also. Everyone says he’s going to be another Bush, but he’s his own man.

“Ultimately, we have to vote with our hearts - and I’m undecided.”

Source — The Seattle Times

Democrats will augment their slender U.S. Senate majority in an election year in which CQ Politics rates nine seats held by Republicans among the 10 most vulnerable to takeover by the challenging party. But that raises the stakes in the one exception: conservative-leaning Louisiana, where two-term Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu is facing a competitive challenge.

CQ Politics currently applies a rating of Leans Democratic to the long-anticipated race between Landrieu and state Treasurer John Kennedy, a longtime Democrat who switched to the Republican Party as he launched his Senate bid. Landrieu is unopposed and Kennedy will face one minor opponent for the Sept. 6 primary, according to a list of candidate filings posted by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office Friday afternoon at the close of the state’s three-day candidate qualifying period.

The Senate race will compete for attention over the next few weeks with what will be a high-profile contest in the New Orleans-based 2nd Congressional District, where seven Democratic candidates filed to challenge nine-term Rep. William J. Jefferson in the primary. Jefferson is seeking re-election despite his indictment and pending trial on federal charges of accepting bribes.

The Senate race will, however, be the marquee congressional race this fall, when there also will be competitive House races in the 4th District, left open by retiring Republican Rep. Jim McCrery; the 6th District, where Democrat Don Cazayoux faces a tough fight to hold the formerly Republican seat he just captured in a May 3 special election; and probably the 7th District, where Democrats are waging a longshot battle to unseat Republican Rep. Charles Boustany Jr.

Landrieu has the early edge in the Senate contest, in part because she has good approval ratings in polls and is running in what appears a strong Democratic year nationally. She is emphasizing the benefits of her Senate seniority to a state, battered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, that has seen the retirements of several veteran members of Congress in recent years.

“In the end, this election is about delivering for Louisiana, and the people of this state know that she has not only fought but won her fights and delivered for the state,” said Landrieu campaign manager Jay Howser, noting as one example the senator’s work to secure federal funding for Louisiana.

Matt Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the political arm of the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate, said that Landrieu has support from independent and moderate voters and also is doing well in fundraising and early polling.

“By every standard you can measure, she looks extremely strong right now,” Miller said.

Kennedy is no stranger to Senate politics, though he made his previous attempt in 2004 as a Democrat. That bid did not go well, as Kennedy finished third with 15 percent behind two House incumbents: Republican David Vitter, who took 51 percent to win the seat outright in what technically was an all-party primary, and Democrat Chris John, who took 29 percent. This year’s elections are the first under a change in Louisiana election law that implemented a system used in most states, with the parties holding separate primaries to nominate candidates for general elections held on the national Election Day.

Kennedy, in his campaign against Landrieu, has been emphasizing issues such as increased transparency in how the government spends taxpayers’ money. Kennedy campaign communications director Leonardo Alcivar described this as “a change year” and “a change election,” in which Kennedy’s self-portrayal as a Washington outsider will trump Landrieu’s experience in Congress.

“This is probably not the year that voters want to hear about clout and seniority in Washington, because they don’t feel that Washington is meeting the needs of people,” said Alcivar, who spoke as Kennedy was embarking on a bus tour of the state.

Though the National Republican Senatorial Committee understandably panned Kennedy’s 2004 Democratic campaign for the Senate, it is backing his bid as a Republican to topple Landrieu. Kennedy is heavily favored to win the GOP primary against J. Jacques Boudreaux, about whom information was not readily available.

In the House races, the scandal clouding Jefferson’s future will undoubtedly draw national attention to his primary contest.

The seven Democrats challenging Jefferson are James Carter, a New Orleans city councilman; Troy Carter, a former state representative and former New Orleans city councilman who ran against Jefferson in 2006, taking 12 percent to finish fifth overall (and fourth among Democrats) in that year’s open-ballot primary; Jimmy Fahrenholtz, a member of the New Orleans school board; Byron L. Lee, a councilman in Jefferson Parish (county); Helena Moreno, a former television journalist; state Rep. Cedric Richmond; and Kenya J.H. Smith, a former aide to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

The seriousness of the charges facing Jefferson — related to his business dealings with companies seeking contracts in Africa — likely would have brought resignation or defeat to most any other member of Congress. But Jefferson, one of the senior African-American members of Congress, proved resilient in 2006, winning re-election in the black-majority 2nd District while he was under federal investigation but before he was formally indicted. After taking 30 percent of the vote in the crowded first-round vote that November, he easily defeated Democratic state Rep. Karen Carter, 57 percent to 43 percent, in the December runoff election.

The lone Republican candidate in the 2nd, which includes the bulk of New Orleans, is Anh “Joseph” Cao, a political unknown. This is a reflection of the daunting partisan odds in the Democratic Party stronghold, where presidential challenger John Kerry received 75 percent of the vote in 2004.

Among the most competitive general election contests, the best opportunity for Democrats to gain a seat is in the 4th District, with includes Shreveport in the northwestern part of the state. McCrery, who holds a prestigious position as ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, is nonetheless leaving open the seat he has held for more than 20 years.

The candidate preferred by Democratic officials is Willie Banks; Artis “Doc” Cash, a losing Democratic candidate for the seat in 2006; and John Milkovich, who lost overwhelmingly to McCrery as the sole Democratic candidate in 2002.

Republicans plan to put up a strong defense of the seat behind the winner of a three-candidate primary featuring Jeff Thompson, a lawyer who is backed by McCrery and some House Republican leaders; John Fleming, a physician; and Chris Gorman, a trucking company executive.

CQ Politics currently rates the race as Leans Republican because of the district’s conservative lean. But this race surely will become a tossup if Carmouche wins the primary, as is widely expected, and especially if the Republicans need a runoff election on Oct. 4 to choose a nominee barely four weeks before the November election.

Two independent candidates are in the race. They are Chester T. Kelley, a restaurateur who took 12 percent of the vote in the 2006 all-party primary on a platform of opposing illegal immigration, and Gerard J. Bowen Jr.

The Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to reclaim the Baton Rouge-based 6th District, newly held by Democrat Cazayoux, which favored Bush with 59 percent in 2004. Cazayoux won in May to succeed 11-term Republican Richard H. Baker, a long-dominant figure in the district who resigned in February to head the trade association representing hedge funds.

Cazayoux will now be running as an incumbent in what is shaping up to be a good Democratic year, so he might be expected to be in even better political shape than he was in May when he defeated Republican former state Rep. Woody Jenkins by 49 percent to 46 percent. But Cazayoux has drawn a serious Republican opponent in state Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is unopposed in the GOP primary. Complicating Cazayoux’ prospects even further is the independent candidacy of state Rep. Michael Jackson, an African-American who lost to Cazayoux in the race for the Democratic nomination in the special election. Blacks, an overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning constituency, make up a third of the district’s population.

CQ Politics currently rates the 6th District race as No Clear Favorite.

A competitive race may yet develop in the southwestern 7th District, where state Sen. Donald Cravins Jr. is challenging Republican incumbent Boustany Jr. Cravins entered the race, currently rated Safe Republican, just a couple of weeks ago.

The Louisiana delegation is rounded out by Republicans Steve Scalise of the southeastern 1st District and Rodney Alexander of the northeastern 5th District and Democrat Charlie Melancon of the south-central 3rd District. All are politically secure.

Scalise was elected in a May 3 special election in what is easily Louisiana’s most Republican-leaning district to succeed Republican Bobby Jindal, who resigned to take the office of governor that he won in last fall’s state election. Scalise will face the winner of a Democratic primary that includes businessman Jim Harlan and frequent candidate M.V. “Vinny” Mendoza.

Melancon’s district is conservative-leaning, but he is a center-right Democrat who trounced a Republican state senator in 2006. No Republican filed to challenge Melancon.

Alexander — who was elected to the House in 2002 as a Democrat, then switched without prior notice to the Republican Party in the final hours of the 2004 candidate filing period — faces Andrew Clack in the Sept. 6 primary. Democrats, despite their lingering anger over Alexander’s party switch, not did field a candidate against him this year.

Source — Yahoo!

(CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton rode the momentum of her
Pennsylvania win into Indiana on Wednesday, with her campaign saying it
is on pace to raise $10 million in 24 hours.

Clinton reported raising $20 million in all of March, according to
campaign finance reports filed last weekend. Sen. Barack Obama raised
more than twice as much last month, taking in $41 million for his
campaign.

Obama’s camp touted a big boost for his campaign Wednesday: endorsements from 49 John Edwards supporters.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who dropped out of the
Democratic presidential race in January, has yet to endorse a candidate.

Indiana and North Carolina hold primaries May 6, the next date on the
primary calendar in what has become a protracted and, at times,
bruising fight for the Democratic nomination. Obama is leading in North
Carolina, and it’s a tight race in Indiana, according to recent polls.

Both Democratic candidates picked up superdelegates Wednesday, with
Obama getting the support of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry and Clinton
receiving a nod from Tennessee Rep. John Tanner.

Clinton and Obama both planned to stump in Indiana on Wednesday, following Clinton’s decisive win in Pennsylvania. She beat Obama by 10 points.

With the win, Clinton will pick up 81 of Pennsylvania’s 158 delegates,
and Obama won 69, CNN estimates. Eight delegates have yet to be
allocated.

The New York senator said Wednesday that her much-needed victory raises fresh questions about Obama’s electability.

Obama downplayed Clinton’s win, saying “it’s important for people to keep things in perspective.”

“We have won the white-, blue-collar vote in a whole bunch of states
… and if we had a demographic problem in Pennsylvania, it was that
it’s an older state than a lot of states, and it is true that Sen.
Clinton has some strong support among voters over 60,” he said on
Roland Martin’s radio show.

Clinton argued that the “tide is turning” as a result of her Tuesday victory.

“I won that double-digit victory that everybody on TV said I had to
win, and the voters of Pennsylvania clearly made their views known,
that they think I would be the best president and the better candidate
to go against Sen. McCain,” referring to the presumptive Republican
candidate, John McCain of Arizona.

“Clearly, [Obama] outspent me again in Pennsylvania, 3 to 1, and we
roared back with a tremendous grass-roots campaign and millions of
people turning out to vote and favoring me by a big margin. … The
fair question is, if you can’t win the states we have to win in the
fall, maybe that says something about your general-election appeal,”
she said.

Clinton has scored wins in the large states of California, New York,
Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania as well as in the Florida primary, which
violated Democratic party rules because it was held at the end of
January.

Obama, however, has won more state primaries and caucuses than Clinton
and leads her in the overall delegate count as well as the popular
vote, despite her win Tuesday night. Obama leads Clinton 1,719 to
1,586, CNN estimates.

Neither candidate can capture the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the
Democratic nomination with wins in the remaining Democratic contests,
meaning the party’s superdelegates will probably decide who gets the
Democratic nomination.

Clinton and her backers have argued that the superdelegates should vote
for her over Obama, despite his lead in the delegate count and the
popular vote, because she is the more electable candidate in a general
election.

Clinton won Tuesday by holding on to the core group of voters who have
fueled her previous victories. She won a majority of female voters,
voters over the age of 45 and white voters.

And, in a troubling sign for the Obama camp, only 50 percent of
Pennsylvania voters who picked Clinton said they would vote for Obama
if he was the Democratic nominee, but 26 percent said they would vote
for McCain.

Nineteen percent of Clinton’s Pennsylvania supporters said they would
not vote in the fall if she was not the Democratic nominee.

Obama’s inability to cut into Clinton’s support among those groups may
raise some concerns on whether he could win those groups if he became
the Democrats’ nominee.

Speaking to supporters in Evansville, Indiana, on Tuesday night, Obama
dismissed questions about his ability to cross racial, gender and
generational boundaries.

“We can continue to slice and dice this country … or this time, we
can build on the movement we started in this campaign, a movement
that’s united Democrats, independents, Republicans, young, old, rich,
poor, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight,”
he said. “Because one thing I know, from traveling 46 states this
campaign season, is that we are not as divided as our politics suggest.”

“Now, it’s up to you, Indiana. … You can decide whether we’re going
to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that
offers real hope for the future,” the Illinois Democrat said.

Source — CNN