Hispanics still like Democrats more than Republicans, but they are way less enthusiastic about voting in this year's elections — potentially depriving Democrats of a major voting bloc they'll need to maintain their majorities in Congress.
In a new report, the Pew Hispanic Center said it polled Hispanic voters and found only about half of them are absolutely certain they will vote in this year's election, compared with 70 percent of all registered voters.
The drop in enthusiasm is stark, coming just two years after Hispanic groups made a major push to register and turn out Latino voters and after they voted overwhelmingly for President Obama.
Pew interviewed 618 registered Hispanic voters in August and September and found they supported Democrats 65 percent to 22 percent over the GOP — far more than the general population, where support for the two parties is about evenly split.
But Pew also found that Hispanics are paying less attention than other voters are to the election. And among Hispanic voters, those who support Republicans are more motivated than those who support Democrats — a worrisome development for Democrats struggling to keep majorities in the House and Senate.
In a finding that may surprise many Washington politicians, the survey showed that immigration does not top the list of concerns of Hispanic voters.
"Rather, they rank education, jobs and health care as their top three issues of concern for this year's congressional campaign. Immigration ranks as the fifth most important issue for Latino registered voters," Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the center and the report's author, wrote.
Despite that finding, which mirrors past elections, lawmakers in Washington continue to focus on immigration legislation as a way of attracting Hispanic voters.
Just before Congress left town to campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, tried to force a debate on a bill to legalize illegal immigrant students, known as the Dream Act. He tried to have that debate as part of the annual defense policy debate, but it was blocked by Republicans, who said that was the wrong forum for considering immigration.
Mr. Reid is counting on a large turnout of Hispanics to boost him in his re-election bid against Republican challenger Sharron Angle.
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