Washington, July 09: Latinos tuning in to today's World Cup football finals on Spanish language US stations might take note of a new political recruiting tool -- TV and radio ads targeting the soccer-loving voters among them.
Democrats have launched an aggressive two-million dollar advertising campaign during international football's quadrennial extravaganza give to woo Latinos, whose votes and party affiliation are seen as being up for grabs.
The World Cup football championships -- which end today when Italy faces off against France -- have always been popular among Latino sports fans, and that is as true as ever this year, political observers note.
"About half of all Hispanics in the United States will watch the World Cup during this season -- between 23 and 25 million," said Joe Garcia, who coordinates the ad campaign launched by the New Democrat Network (NDN), a progressive
organisation within the party.
Party officials are banking that the popularity of the world's most beloved sport -- especially in this championship year -- can be used to enhance the Democrats' appeal, ahead of November's mid-term elections.
The NDN in June launched a nearly two million dollar Spanish language ad campaign to air during the World Cup games.
Their advertising slogan, "Mas Que Un Partido" contains the play on words, "more than a game," and "more than a party" is a dual-edged appeal to Hispanic potential voters.
Other ads in the series include a spot called "Es tu eq uipo" ("this is your team"), and "hemos esperado" ("we've waited"). The Democrats also have launched a website: www.Ndnfutbol.Org.
Both Democrats and Republicans are eager to capture a bigger share of the Hispanic vote, which is one of the fastest-growing segments of the us electorate. But Garcia said that with this campaign, democrats have fired the opening salvo in the battle between the two parties for Hispanic votes.
"We did it at a time when no one else was focusing on it. Think about the priority we placed on the Hispanic voter," he said.
"For the 2006 (election) cycle this is where the conversation is begun," he said.
"At the same time that the Republican Party is saying 'go home. Get out of this country, we don't want you here," we've got a campaign that's basically saying, 'join our team'," said Garcia.
His remark was a reference to the roiling national debate on immigration reform during which some conservatives have called for the repatriation of undocumented -- mostly Latino -- workers and the construction of barrier on the Southern US border with Mexico.
Bureau Report
