There are still quite a few Democrats who blame John Kerry’s loss, at least in part, on Nativo Lopez. He left their party and joined the Green Party a few years back and he helped the Ralph Nader campaign, against Kerry. And as we all know, George W. Bush was reelected, Kerry lost and Nader is running again this year for the Presidency. But THIS time Lopez is backing the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama.
That is good news for Obama. Lopez continues to have a lot of ties to organized labor and he has proven that he can get Latinos out in large numbers for protests. Will that translate into votes? I think so, at least to a certain extent. But Lopez is still polarizing amongst Republicans – whether or not he will hurt Obama with independents remains to be determined.
Lopez also runs the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), which has announced a MAPA for Obama national campaign. Here is Lopez’ press release to that effect:
The Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) announces the MAPA FOR OBAMA national campaign for the purpose of aggressively introducing the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama to the Latino communities throughout the U.S. This is a campaign to mobilize the Latino vote in favor of the Obama candidacy for president, but also to establish permanent organization in our neighborhoods, schools, colleges, universities, and work-places.
Form a MAPA FOR OBAMA chapter today. It is not only about electing a president who stands for change, but making the change ourselves on the issues that are important to us. It is about both electing candidates for change to political office and building permanent organization that you control and own.
Let us unite around the issues that unite our communities:
· Fair and humane immigration reform
· Return the U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and an end to the war
· Universal single-payer health care for all persons
· A living wage for all working people
· Respect a women’s right to choice
· University education guaranteed to all irrespective of immigration status
· Respect the right to organize a union in the work-place with no retaliation
· A green and clean environment and an end to dependency on fossil fuels
· Homeownership – a dream based on fair loan terms and no predatory lending
· Fair and equitable trade policies
These are the issues that are important to us and around which we can form chapters of the MAPA FOR OBAMA campaign.
Call us today to form your chapter, hold a house meeting or campus meeting. Once you form your MAPA FOR OBAMA chapter you control the leadership, you engage in the campaign locally, you control the resources, you direct the campaign in your sphere of influence, and you will hold the candidate accountable after Election Day.
You can reach us at www.mapa.org –
nativolopez@mapa-ca.org –
nativolopez@sbcglobal.net or (323) 269-1575. We are organized in all major counties throughout California and in other states. You also can be part of this network. Call us.
Nativo V. Lopez
National President
What does it matter to California if Nativo supports Obama ?
The Republicans have already written off California’s electoral votes.
They know that Obama will carry California.
Is this an attempt by Nativo to rehabilite himself and gain notariety?
To answer junior
It can matter on heck of a lot to the political future of the county, state and nation if the latino population decides to get politically active. In OC we have seen the impact the Vietnamese community can have by registering and voting. Still the registration numbers and voting propensities of our latino population are both tragically weak. They could have a great impact on many races up and down the state and up and down the ticket.
Ken – You mention “latino population”. I assume we are talking citizens legally eligible to vote.
Are figures available for the percentage of latinos who are eligible to vote who actually do vote?
And how does this compare to Vietnamese who are eligible to vote?
nativio = aka larry lopez . forgot to add on his list. amensty for all .. open borders . and spanish only in school ..
LOL…right, Lopez brought down Kerry. Utterly ridiculous!
John Kerry brought down John Kerry.
Junior,
Yes, of course only eligible voters – citizens of age and otherwise not disqualified.
Really accurate figures are practically impossible as census is only every ten years and the voter registration and especially the actual voting records do not record for ethnicity.
Certainly a significant portion of the latino population does not have citizenship (est. 32%). The same is true of Asian population in the state overall.
Significant exceptions as noted in a (2002) Public Policy Institute Study (http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/rb/RB_1202JCRB.pdf) are the Philipine-American and Vietnamese-American groups with much higher citizenship and voting rates than other immigrant groups. The estimated Latino voting statistics are in line with the overall Asian figures (both much lower than for white immigrants and much further below native-born whites) only after adjusting for other voter tendency factors such as age, education, income, and residential stability.
Perhaps after all considerations are made it is just a matter of mis-perceptions, stereotypes and mythology. However….
I, an unknown Democrat in a highly Republican Assembly district, asked Assemblyman Jose Solorio how I could and did pull so many more votes than him in the (admittedly meaningless and very low turnout) primaries we just had. I asked if it was low registration or low turnout. He said he thought it was both.
From my limited personal observations and thoughts, I, too, think there is a large number of U.S. born citizens of Latin American descent that are not voting here in Orange County.
Then again I have met a lot of Vietnamese and whites that don’t vote even though eligible too.
Junior has it correct. California is solidly in the Democrat’s corner. Larry Lopez can do whatever he wants, but will no effect on the outcome.
Nativo may not have much impact on Obama’s outcome but he can have a big effect on a Democratic Congress and all the other down ticket races where Obama is likely to have a big effect. This guy is energizing the electorate in a way that none of the old guys writing here could imagine.
Nativo can help the young latino voters, and those still too young to vote, to find a place and a way to work towards constructive change. While he’s at it he can point out that its not a good idea to take gangbanger pictures in front of a campaign sign – if you want to win.
Lorenzo Lopez is just another self-promoting wanna-be exploiting a particular demographic for personal visibility and gain. He has been most effective in keeping out of the slammer for misuse of public and non-profit funds, but other than that his accomplishments are lacking. Remember how much he helped Gray Davis in the last days of the recall campaign? If I were Obama, I would ask Lorenzo to endorse my opponent!
I always thought MAPA was a non-profit. Did they set up a 527 or other organization to do MAPA for Obama?
Lopez brings down Kerry? LUNACY. He has no power only the ambition of such. Older Than is correct and right on.
Who’s the white guy in the picture ? I thought Larry Lopez director of Hermandad Mexicana was in jail for fraud !