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Winning the hearts and minds of Hispanic voters
The Providence delegation provides a model
BY IAN DONNIS
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MONDAY, July 26, 2004 -- A broad change in Democratic politics in Rhode Island can be seen in the form of a diminutive woman who was fixed near the podium during a welcome breakfast for the state’s delegation at the Boston Marriott at Copley Place. Melba Depena might be slight in stature, but it was her prowess as a political organizer that led Democratic chairman William Lynch to hire her last year as the party’s executive director. It came just months after Depena, in a story in the Providence Phoenix, criticized Rhode Island Democrats for taking the support of Hispanics for granted. Although the hiring last December of Depena, a 32-year native of the Dominican Republic, marked an unusual move for a party heavily composed of Irish-American and Italian-American politicians, it was a bravura way of reaching out to women and minorities. After the voting power of Latinos proved vital in Providence’s 2002 mayoral election, the state party wasted little time in taking some steps toward change. Lynch, who still seems bemused by the slightly curious circumstance of Depena’s hiring, nonetheless considers himself fortunate. "She’s my right arm," he says. "For someone who’s never done this before, she’s done an amazing job [with helping to organize the delegation]." Depena, a former president of the Rhode Island Latino Civic Fund, is the first to acknowledge that Democrats need to do more in winning support among minorities, particularly in this year’s presidential election. She expressed satisfaction, though, that Rhode Island’s 36-member convention delegation surpassed a national Democratic goal of including at least 40 percent women and minorities. The minority delegates include Providence lawyer Angel Taveras, a past candidate for Congress, who served as chairman of John Edwards’ presidential campaign; House majority leader Gordon Fox; Cranston state Senator Hanna Gallo; and three-time gubernatorial candidate Myrth York. As the Republicans work to extend their control of the White House and Congress, it remains to be seen whether the fast-growing Latino population in the US offers more of an edge to Democrats of the GOP. It might be a strange question in heavily Democratic southern New England, but the political leanings of Latinos -- from the super-conservative Cuban expatriates of south Florida to California’s Republican-leaning Mexican-Americans -- tend to be far more varied around the US. In Rhode Island, where being a Republican has been compared to trying to pee up a rope, a few believe that the GOP theme of family, church, and self-reliance remains appealing for Latinos in the US. Those on the other side argue, of course, that anti-immigrant Republican policies do enough to drive politically aware Hispanics into the arms of the Democratic Party.
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