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Small SC wildly succeeded at making voice heard (AP)
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? South Carolina Republicans established their presidential primary more than three decades ago as way to raise the state’s national political profile. They wildly succeeded.
Ever since 1980, when Ronald Reagan won, every candidate who has won the GOP primary in this Southern state of fewer than 5 million has gone on to claim the Republican presidential nomination. State party officials are fond of saying the road to the White House passes straight through South Carolina.
Harry Dent, the late South Carolinian who engineered Richard Nixon’s 1968 Southern strategy of appealing to Southern conservatives, and the late state GOP Chairman Dan Ross are generally credited with planting the seeds for the primary.
Former Gov. James B. Edwards, who in the 1970s was the first GOP governor of the state in modern times, says no one at the time thought the presidential primary would morph into what it has become today bringing all the major GOP candidates to crisscross the state with hundreds of reporters in tow.
“I wasn’t that foresighted and I don’t know that anybody else was or not. I doubt it,” said Edwards, who is now 84.
South Carolina is a different battleground from the corn fields of Iowa and predominantly white New Hampshire. The state is poorer, more conservative and has a population that is 28 percent black. Voters don’t register by parties so Democrats and independents enter the mix in the primary.
The state has also proven a second-chance for candidates who have stumbled in earlier contests with their different constituencies.
In the GOP primary in 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush beat Sen. John McCain of Arizona after he was upset by McCain in New Hampshire. Four years ago, it was McCain who capped a comeback following a dismal showing in Iowa with a win in New Hampshire and another in South Carolina.
Republican state Sen. John Courson, elected to the Senate in 1984, was a Reagan delegate in 1976 when Reagan lost the nomination to President Gerald Ford. Reagan supporters wanted a primary in 1980 because they believed Reagan would fare better against former Texas Gov. John Connelly in an open primary than in a traditional nominating convention.
Courson said two elements have helped to make the primary a success: It’s always been the first in the South and has always been held on a Saturday, which party leaders knew would bring conservative Democrats to the polls.
“We had to be the first-in-the-South primary. If any other Southern large state, like Texas or Florida, were before us, we would not see the candidates,” he said.
What is lost with all the candidates trooping through is that the primary also helped build the modern Republican Party in South Carolina. Until 2008, the party ran the primary using volunteers. Now it’s the job of the State Election Commission.
Getting volunteers involved was central to building the GOP.
“If you start working with the party and working at the polls and organizing the primary, that gives you the stimulus to be a real party,” Edwards said.
Much of the proof is in the office-holding.
In 1980, when the GOP presidential primary was established, only 23 of the 170 South Carolina state lawmakers and one of the nine statewide office-holders were Republican. Today, there are 103 GOP lawmakers and the party holds all nine statewide offices.
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GOP candidates slow to reach Hispanic voters
WASHINGTON – Republican leaders have repeatedly stressed the need for their 2012 nominee to win the growing Hispanic vote, but few of the party’s presidential contenders appear ready to make the case why Hispanic voters should pick them over President Obama.
More than 50 million Hispanics live in the USA, a 46% increase from the past decade, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.
Hispanics made up 6.9% of voters in last year’s midterm elections, up from 5.8% in 2006, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Sixty percent of Hispanics voted for Democratic candidates, Pew records show.
Even though it’s early in the Republican primary process, this is when Hispanic outreach needs to start, Republican consultants said, rather than become a last-ditch effort at the end of a general election campaign.
“There is no other way to achieve victory outside of that, and that includes showing up and talking issues with Hispanic voters,” said Danny Diaz, a former spokesman for Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2008. “In the absence of that, the Republican candidate will not win the presidency.”
Hispanics backed Democrat Barack Obama over McCain, R-Ariz., by 67% to 31% in 2008, records show. Obama and his campaign organization have made moves to keep their support.
For example, Obama visited Puerto Rico Tuesday for the first official presidential visit since President John F. Kennedy went there 50 years ago.
Organizing for America, a precursor to Obama’s formal 2012 campaign, has begun to set up Hispanics for Obama groups in central Florida, recruiting and training Spanish-speaking volunteers to work phone banks and registering Puerto Ricans to vote.
Few of the Republican candidates who have officially declared their bid for the White House appear to be as far along in their outreach efforts.
None of the campaign websites for the major contenders has a Spanish-language version, only one appears to have staff dedicated to Hispanic outreach.
“I sense they are all getting their political operations up and running, just as they are getting their fundraising operations up and running,” said GOPAC President David Avella. GOPAC provides financial and logistical support to Republicans on the state and local levels.
Candidates must do three things to reach out to Hispanic voters effectively, said Hector Barajas, the Latino communication specialist for Republican Meg Whitman’s California gubernatorial campaign in 2010, They must identify the issues that Latinos care about, employ the right people to deliver the campaign message to their communities and be culturally sensitive.
If Republicans are just starting to build their Hispanic outreach, “it’s already too late,” Barajas said. “They should have already done this. It needs to be a year-round effort.”
Two Republican candidates have made some early efforts to contact Hispanic voters.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich long ago began establishing roots in the Hispanic community through his various businesses, including The Americano, a conservative Hispanic news site. He gave one of his first interviews after announcing his candidacy to Univision. Sylvia Garcia, Hispanic outreach director for the Gingrich campaign, will lead Gingrich’s”Hispanic inclusion” effort that is likely to launch in the coming months.
Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty was the only 2012 contender to attend the Hispanic Leadership Network conference in Florida in January. The event, co-chaired by former Florida governor Jeb Bush and former Commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez, was sponsored by the Republican American Action Network.
“I think you need to actually recognize there is a need to do that and show up,” Pawlenty said last month.
Alex Conant, a spokesman for Pawlenty, said the campaign was working with Univision to schedule Pawlenty on a Sunday show in the near future.”[Hispanic outreach] is a long-term and real priority,” he said.
Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said Paul places a “high value” on Hispanic outreach.
“We know that Dr. Paul’s message of personal liberty, strong families and vision for economic prosperity have a natural appeal to Hispanics and will make communicating to Latinos a priority for our team,” he said.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney courted Hispanic voters during his 2008 presidential bid, but it was unclear what the campaign planned for 2012.
Spokesmen for Romney and former senator Rick Santorum, R-Pa., did not return requests for comment about their outreach strategies.
Candidates should focus on more than just immigration, Barajas said, as polls have shown that Hispanics care more about the economy and health care.
Mark Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, agreed with Barajas but added that over the past 10 years, Hispanics perceive Democrats as caring more about their issues.
“We have regularly asked Hispanics registered voters, ‘Which party do you think has more concerns for the Hispanic community, the Republican Party or the Democrat Party,’” Lopez said. “The Democratic Party is seen as having more concern than Republicans.”
Clarissa Martinez-De-Catro, director of Immigration and National Campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, said that although immigration may not be the most important issue among some Latinos, the heated rhetoric that occurs when the issue is brought up is not easily dismissed.
“A lot of folks like to say that Latinos don’t just care about immigration, and therefore they don’t have to address the immigration issue to be able to reach out effectively,” she said. “When the immigration debates turns negative, and it has been nothing but in the last couple of years, it has an impact on the community most closely associated with that issue.”
Jackie Kucinich, USA TODAY