Current Solicitor General and Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ted Cruz, said that bilingual education creates a “language ghetto.” TDP spokesperson Rebecca Acuña released the following statement in response:

“Only in the Republican Party is speaking more than one language considered a liability.

Apparently the Republican Hispanic outreach plan is to launch unrelenting attacks on the Latino community. Unfortunately, Mr. Cruz’s comments aren’t an anomaly within his party. Latinos have sadly become used to hearing intolerant and hateful remarks coming from Republicans.

Cruz’s refusal to apologize for comments that even Newt Gingrich backtracked from shows just how far out of the mainstream Texas Republicans have drifted.

Republicans need to stop using the Latino community as a wedge to gain support from the extreme wing of their party.”

Other GOP Latino-outreach efforts:

• Ted Cruz forcefully opposes the DREAM Act, which is supported by 85% of Latinos.
• David Dewhurst brags about the devastating cuts he made to public education. The first time that Latino students made up more than 50% of students in public schools in Texas was the first time public education was cut.
• Mitt Romney promises to veto the DREAM Act and calls the bill a handout.
• Romney tied himself at the hip and is campaigning with the architect of anti-immigrant state-level immigration laws, Kris Kobach, who authored both the Arizona and Alabama immigration laws.
• Newt Gingrich called Spanish the language of the ghetto.
• Rick Perry touted the endorsement of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and named Arpaio chair of his presidential efforts in Arizona.

*Below you can read the statement in the language of the ghetto.

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Ted Cruz: La educación bilingüe causa un ‘ghetto’

El subsecretario de Justicia de Texas y el candidato para el Senado, Ted Cruz, dijo que la educación bilingüe cause un “ghetto de idioma.” La vocera del partido demócrata de Texas, Rebecca Acuña, emitió la siguiente declaración en respuesta:

“Solo en el partido republicano se considera una desventaja saber hablar más de un idioma. Aparentemente, el plan de los republicanos para atraer a los latinos es lanzar constante ataques hacia nuestra comunidad. Desafortunadamente, los comentarios de Ted Cruz no son una anomalía en su partido. Los latinos se han acostumbrado a escuchar comentarios ignorantes y odiosos por parte de los republicanos.

El hecho de que Cruz se niega a disculparse por un comentario del cual hasta Newt Gingrich se retracto, muestra lo extremista que los republicanos en Texas se han vuelto. Los republicanos necesitan parar de atacar a nuestra comunidad para ganar el apoyo de los extremistas en su partido.”

Otros esfuerzos de los republicanos para atraer a los latinos:

• Ted Cruz se opone al DREAM Act, que es apoyado por el 85% de los latinos.
• David Dewhurst presumió por los recortes presupuestarios a la educación publica, los cuales fueron hecho el primer año que los latinos representaron más del 50% de los estudiantes en las escuelas públicas de Texas.
• Mitt Romney promote vetar el  DREAM Act. Romney también recibió el apoyo de Kris Kobach, el arquitecto de leyes anti-inmigrantes de los estados.
• Rick Santorum se opone a cualquiera reforma migratoria.
• Newt Gingrich dijo que el español es el idioma del “ghetto.”
• Rick Perry recibió el apoyo del Alguacil Joe Arpaio y lo nombró presidente de sus esfuerzos presidenciales en Arizona.

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This Fellowship Program is part of the second phase of our Promesa Project, which launched in December with this website, accompanying social media components and an earned media blitz. We generated a great deal of buzz and raised enough money to be able to launch Phase Two, which will consist of this Fellowship Program, paid media and a continued crescendo of the current social and earned media efforts.

The Fellowship Program is currently aiming to place Fellows on the following eleven campuses across Texas.

• University of Texas – El Paso
• University of Texas – Pan American
• University of Texas – San Antonio
• University of Texas
• University of Houston
• Texas A&M – International
• University of Texas – Brownsville
• University of Texas – Arlington
• University of North Texas – Dallas
• University of Houston – Downtown
• Texas A&M – Corpus Christi

Discussion of expanding this list to include more campuses during this phase of Promesa are underway.

Fellows will be paid a stipend of $750 per semester. Upon acceptance into the program, Fellows will be required to spend a weekend in Austin for an intensive training session in various campaign and organizing skills. Travel, lodging and meals will be covered by TDP.

The Fellowship Training will take place over a Friday night, one full Saturday and a half-day Sunday and feature sessions such as:

• Welcome / Overview of the Promesa strategy / Targeting goals by region / Political goals by region
• How to conduct a voter registration drive
• How to use VAN (TDP’s online voter file)
• How to use the VAN/Facebook Tool
• Political Communications via Social Media
• Organizing Campus Political Events
• Running a Phone Bank Using VAN’s Virtual Phone Bank
• Running a Volunteer Canvass
• Earned Media
• Use of Web Video

Responsibilities to include:

• Campus Organizing
• Voter Registration
• Organize Events on Campus including Rallies, Guest Lectures, House Parties
• Build Social Media Capacity
• Assist with Video Production
• Build Volunteer Capacity
• Organize GOTV Phone Banks
• Organize Social Media GOTV Drives

All Fellows will report directly to TDP Staff and be required to meet specific goals, submit regular reports and call-in to regular conference calls.

If you’re interested, please submit a resume and short essay discussing why you would like to be a part of this program to promesa@txdemocrats.org.

“This momentary desire to appeal to Latinos will pass the second the polls close in Florida and the vehemently anti-Latino policies and attitudes that have dominated this presidential primary will return. The President has pushed for comprehensive immigration reform and passage of the DREAM Act while Republicans continue to view Latinos as little more than a political piñata.

As the GOP contenders tout their ‘moral values’ they won’t mention they are the party that punishes immigrant children because their parents dreamt of a better life for them.

Mitt Romney will probably not brag about the endorsement he received from Kris Kobach, the architect of the draconian Arizona and Alabama immigration laws. He won’t mention that as Governor, he vetoed the Massachusetts DREAM Act, and will likely try to gloss over the fact that he’s promised to veto the federal DREAM Act. He’ll have to defend his claim that ‘self-deportation’ is an immigration policy, which drew laughs at the last Florida debate.

Newt Gingrich is unlikely to repeat his comments that Spanish is the ‘language of the ghetto’ and will try to not dwell on the fact that he only supports the military provision in the DREAM Act.

It’s insulting that Newt Gingrich thinks it’s ok for immigrant students to risk their lives for this country, but not ok for them to practice their professions. Republicans are on the wrong side of every issue that’s important to Latinos. Before they got to Florida they were practically beating us off with a stick.”

According to a recent Latino Decisions poll, registered Hispanic voters in Florida support President Obama 67 to 25 over Mitt Romney and 70 to 22 over Newt Gingrich.

As many of you know, during the last legislative session the Texas Legislature passed a bill (SB 14) that would require voters to show a photo ID when they vote. However, Texas is one of the states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which means that before any changes to voting procedures can be implemented, they must be approved either by the Department of Justice (DOJ) or by a federal court in a process known as “preclearance”.  You can read more about the preclearance process as well as the rest of the back story on the Texas Voter ID saga at the links at the bottom of this post.

First of all, the DOJ has not issued an opinion one way or the other on the voter ID bill. They have until mid-March to do so. While no one knows for certain, most people who follow these sorts of things believe the DOJ will deny preclearance to the Texas law just as they did to the South Carolina voter ID law.

Instead of waiting for the DOJ to issue an opinion, the State of Texas has filed an Expedited Complaint for Declaratory Judgment in U.S. District court asking for the court to grant preclearance to the voter ID bill. You can read that filing here.

We do not know what the court’s decision will be, how long it will take to make a decision, or if there will be further legal action in a higher court once the District Court acts.

Bottom line, we still don’t know if voter i.d. will be in place for any of the elections held in Texas this year. However, in an effort to be prepared just in case photo identification becomes a requirement for voting at some point, here are the things you need to know and/or do. Even if you already have the required photo ID please share this information with others so that those voters who may not have photo ID can be informed and prepared.

The types of ID that will be necessary IF the voter ID bill is approved are:

• Driver’s license, election identification certificate, personal identification card, or concealed handgun license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety;
• United States Military identification card containing the person’s photograph;
• United States citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph; or
• United States passport.

With the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the identification must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented for voter qualification at the polling place.

There are some exemptions for voters who are disabled or have religious objections to being photographed, however, the local elections offices will not be able to put the procedures in place to keep track of who qualifies unless and until the voter ID bill is precleared.

Voters who do not possess any of the above types of ID will be able to obtain a free Election Identification Certificate (EIC) from the Department of Public Safety, IF the law is precleared.  You will not be able to apply for an EIC unless and until preclearance is granted. In order to obtain an EIC, you will need to bring the same type of documentation used to prove your identity that you would need if you were apply for a Driver’s License or Personal Identification card.  If you do not currently have the required documentation to obtain an EIC, now would be a good time to start the process of obtaining the necessary documentation.  The list of acceptable documents is at http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/DriverLicense/identificationrequirements.htm.  Helpful tip: One of the acceptable pieces of “Supporting Identification” necessary is a Voter Registration Card.  So if you are not already registered, have moved, or lost your card, you can get a new or updated certificate by going to http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml.  For those of you who already have photo i.d., consider working with your local Party and other Democrats in your area on doing a voter registration drive (which you should be doing anyway since it’s one of the few activities NOT affected by redistricting).

If you need to obtain documentation to get an EIC, below are some links that might help you through the process:

• Department of Public Safety
• Social Security Administration
• Texas Vital Records
• Vital Records from other states

We’ll keep you posted as things develop. We’d also love to hear any stories you have to share from people who want to vote but lack the necessary ID that would be imposed under the new law if it is approved.

Texas Voter I.D. Background Info

• Petition to preserve Voting Rights
• Fight Back
• Letter To DOJ 1
• TDP Demands DOJ deny preclearance
• SOS Hiding the Truth
• Your Voices Heard
• TDP to Gonzales: Prove Your Claim
• SOS Voter ID Flip Flop
• Gonzales Claims Meritless
• Final Notice
• DOJ Blocks South Carolina’s Voter ID Law

Sincerely,

Sondra Haltom
Political Director
Texas Democratic Party

“Es ridículo que los republicanos piensen que poniendo a Quico Canseco en la televisión les ayudará a atraer a los latinos a su partido. Hay poca gente mejor que Quico Canseco que puedan mostrar por qué los republicanos son malos para los latinos. Es irónico que los republicanos eligieron a la persona en cuyo distrito trataron de tener el nivel más bajo de votantes hispanos posible para hablar a la comunidad hispana.*”

* E-mails de los republicanos sobre el redistritaje muestran que los republicanos trataron de dibujar un distrito para Quico Canseco que dejaría al nivel de votantes hispanos registrados en el nivel más bajo posible. Puede leer los mensajes de correo electrónico aquí: http://www.txdemocrats.org/downloads/OHRV.jpg

“It’s laughable that Republicans think putting Quico Canseco on TV will help them with their Latino outreach efforts. There are few people better than Quico Canseco who can showcase just why Republicans are bad for Latinos. It is ironic that Republicans tapped the person whose district was drawn to have the lowest level of Hispanic voters possible to address Latinos.*”

*Republican redistricting emails from November 2010 that were released this week show that Republican mapmakers tried to draw Quico Canseco a districts that would leave the level of Hispanic registered voters at the lowest level possible. You can read those emails here: http://www.txdemocrats.org/downloads/OHRV.jpg

“I’m sure the folks who rely on the jobs and economic benefits generated by the Johnson Space Center are happy to hear that Gingrich has a plan modeled on CrackerJacks*.

Amazingly, Gingrich’s plan to give out prizes for space exploration was actually overshadowed by his call for a second Bay of Pigs and Romney presenting self-deportation as an immigration policy.

Somehow, with Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry out of the race, this group of Republican contenders were able to come up with proposals so crazy as to make Ron Paul seem like the moderate voice of reason.”

##

*With apologies to Crackerjacks, whom we love.

“Abbott’s wasting tax dollars to inquire whether the Voter ID law is discriminatory in intent or just in effect, as if it made any difference to the people being discriminated.

General Abbott knows in-person voter fraud doesn’t exist. He already cost Texas taxpayers $1.4 million on a wild goose chase that turned up no cases of voter impersonation. Our question to General Abbott is, if there are no cases of voter impersonation, then what exactly is this legislation’s purpose? The absolute intent of this law is to disenfranchise voters.

General Abbott admits that the Republican voter-ID law would have a disparate impact on minorities, he just doesn’t care.* ”

According to the Secretary of State’s own data, more than 600,000 Texans who are currently registered to vote, including 174,866 Texans with Spanish surnames, don’t have the identification necessary under this draconian measure.

From Abbott’s complaint:

• *Page 14, #34 of the brief: “Extending “retrogressive effects” analysis to Voter-ID laws, by denying preclearance to any voter requirement that has an unintended disparate impact on minority voters, would present serious constitutional questions.”

“The Supreme Court did not strike down the interim maps. The issues they had pertained to the process by which the court arrived at new maps, not necessarily the maps themselves.

While it is not clear what the final districts will look like at this point, what is clear is that the state’s original maps have been found to be discriminatory in some way by every court which has examined them.

The state’s maps completely ignored the demographic realities of Texas. The Supreme Court did not approve the state’s maps and we don’t expect they ever will.”

“Republicans would rather draw Latinos out of their districts than work to earn their vote,” said TDP spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña.