From The Hotline Latest Edition for Tuesday, May 6,2008

FLORIDA (27 EVS)

Going To Give It The Old College Try?

Tue. May 6, 2008


Dems "are poised this week to pass a crucial milestone" in FL. For the first time, the number of Hispanic Dems is expected to exceed the number of Hispanic GOPers. "The last set of figures released in April showed a bare majority" of 202 GOPers over Dems among FL's roughly 1.2M Dem voters "who describe themselves as Hispanic on their voting forms."

It's "a powerful symbol at the key moment: Quietly, Democrats are debating whether to mount a full-out, expensive challenge" to John McCain in FL, "or essentially cede its 27 Electoral College votes to the GOP." Dem chair Karen Thurman: "They absolutely need to be in Florida." She called the shift "historic."

The Dem-leaning Hispanics "offers a suggestion, in the short term, that Democrats can carry the state; in the long term, it's a worrying trend for Republicans, who have long relied on relatively conservative Cuban voters to buck the national tendency of Hispanics to support Democratic politicians" (Smith/Parnes, Politico, 5/5).