GOP to court Latino voters after elections

Two outside conservative political action committees are forming a Hispanic Leadership Network led by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to attract Hispanic voters to the GOP.

"In candor our party has had some challenges with Hispanic voters," American Action Network and American Action Forum CEO Norm Coleman tells The Upshot. The former Minnesota senator says he hopes that the expected GOP wins of Senate hopeful Marco Rubio in Florida and gubernatorial candidates Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez will draw Hispanic voters to the party.

"We're looking at developing leadership in the country that we think can be an inspiration to other conservative Hispanics," he said.

But can the GOP appeal to Latino voters without embracing some version of immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants?

All three GOP candidates Coleman mentioned are against the Democratic version of immigration reform, to varying degrees. More than 85 percent of Hispanics back comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship, according to a recent poll. Eighty percent disapprove of Arizona's SB1070 anti-illegal-immigration law, which many Republicans have embraced.

Coleman says immigration reform will be among the topics on the agenda for the leadership network's January conference -- but that the conference won't release an official platform on reform or any other issue. (Bush, the group's leader, is a vocal proponent of immigration reform.)

"There's no question that that's an important issue," Coleman said. "It'll be on the table. I anticipate that there will be folks with different perspectives."

The head of the pro-immigration-reform group America's Voice, Frank Sharry, told Politico he doesn't think Republicans will be able to get broad support among Latinos unless they back immigration reform.

"There is no doubt the Republicans are hoping that some high-profile Hispanics will mean they can reach out to Latinos without shifting on immigration," he told the paper. "But they will have a hard time going above 30 percent nationally -- even with Latino Republicans in high-profile roles (think VP candidate) -- unless they get right on immigration. And the GOP needs to get to at least 40 percent nationally if they ever want to see the inside of the White House again."

The power of the Latino vote is evident in the campaign of California GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman. Though she launched an extensive Latino outreach campaign after winning her primary, Whitman now trails her opponent, Jerry Brown, by 20 percentage points with Latinos. She lost support after her former housekeeper, a Mexican citizen, accused her of knowing she was an illegal immigrant and firing her abruptly when she asked for help getting legal status.

One former Republican National Committee official launched a controversial ad campaign on Univision telling Latino voters not to vote at all this year, since neither Republicans nor Democrats planned to deliver on immigration reform. The campaign was widely condemned and pulled from the network. In 2006, nearly 70 percent of Hispanic voters voted for Democrats.

(Photo of Florida GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio: AP)