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In the 2008 national election, a Latino race narrative suggesting that racial prejudice among Latino citizens shape their electoral choices. Specifically, racial views were offered as an explanation for high levels of Hispanic support of Hillary Clinton and as a rationale for the superiority of a Clinton general election campaign rather than an Obama one. The implication was that racial sentiment would undermine support for Obama. In this effort, we examine each of these contentions. We argue, first, that examination of polling data from the pre-primary season through the early months of the Obama administration offers no support for the Latino race narrative. Second, we show that, while Latino voters often express racial sentiments indistinguishable from whites, these sentiments played little role in creating a preference for Clinton. Rather, racial sentiments-while important to white voters-are unrelated to the differentiation of Clinton from Obama among Latino citizens. Finally, we demonstrate a significant disconnect between those racial sentiments and Latinos' vote choice in the general election. In so doing, we explore the relative explanatory power of explicit, indirect and implicit measures of racial sentiment and find that an indirect measurement, specifically the Racial Resentment Index, retains the greatest predictive validity. Taken together, our results suggest that, Latino racial views notwithstanding, there is no evidence for racial attitudes affecting Latino preferences in either the primary or general election processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2004 presidential election raised a number of questions about how military service is used in political campaigns and how it affects individual-level engagement in politics. Most of this discussion consisted of journalistic accounts, however, and few social scientists have tested theories about the military and politics with survey data or electoral returns. This is especially the case for the political role of military service for minority electorates. This paper therefore examines whether military service and opinions about the war in Iraq are associated with the vote for Bush and Kerry in 2004. The dataset is a pre-election national survey of Latinos that includes questions about political engagement, partisanship, and previous military service. The results indicate that Latino veterans were more likely to support Kerry than were Latino non-veterans. In addition, Latinos who opposed the war in Iraq were less supportive of Bush, and Latino veterans who opposed the war were particularly opposed to Bush. These results help to understand not only the Latino vote in the 2004 presidential election but also the role of veteran status in electoral politics. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of ethnicity upon political participation presents an interesting paradox to political scientists. No consensus exists on the extent to which the interaction between contextual factors and individual level characteristics allow individuals to overcome barriers to participation, or how this relates to patterns of mobilization. While it is well documented that contacts and mobilization are effective in turning out the vote, few scholars have asked the question of who gets mobilized, and why? In this paper, we use a modified model of the effects of group size and group empowerment for Latinos in the United States to predict which Latinos reported being mobilized prior to the 2000 Presidential election. The modifications include a departure from an emphasis on the presence of Black or Latino mayors as a measurement of empowerment. Instead, we propose using a multiple-level Latino representation model of empowerment. Using a five state survey of registered Latino voters collected after the 2000 elections, we test this alternative model of empowerment to determine if Latino registered voters, living in districts with Latino representatives, are more likely to be contacted and asked to vote. Further modifications include making a distinction between type of contact and the addition of other characteristics that have been found to significantly impact Latino participation. The strategic nature of party contacting leads organizations to contact those individuals who are already the individuals most predisposed to participate. Probit regression analysis finds that Latinos represented by co-ethnics are more likely to be mobilized than Latinos represented by White or Black elected officials, providing additional support for the notion that descriptive representation empowers minority communities. However, the relationship is not linear. Latinos with only one Latino representative are the most likely to receive mobilization while those with two or three representatives are less likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the linkage between religion, or church, and political participation in a way to address the question of low levels of political participation among Latinos. We specifically focus on three distinct but complementary roles the church may play-as an incubator for civic skills, as an agent for mobilization, and as an information provider-in stimulating Latinos to take part in politics. Church-based mobilization goes directly to the heart of our answer to the question of Latino political inactivity. To the extent Latino participation depends on mobilization, whether or not church leaders have asked parishioners to get involved in politics is expected to have an immediate consequence. Drawing on data from a recent national survey of 2,060 Latino adults, we show that church-based skills and church-based mobilization are directly responsible for Latino political participation, while the effects of other typical religious factors are largely muted. Having ascertained the relative importance of different religious factors in accounting for political participation, we confirm that Latino churches serve as a vehicle of political participation. We maintain, however, that Latino churches have not fully capitalized on their potential to play a greater role in boosting rates of Latino participation, which in part explains a relative political inactivity among Latinos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]