MIAMI - The unexpected sight of empty seats is unsettling for candidates jockeying for an edge in the race for the White House. At a tightly orchestrated campaign event, it can telegraph trouble — from fading popularity to lack of enthusiasm in a key voting bloc.
There were plenty of empty seats in the Miami Hilton Hotel ballroom on Friday when Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney addressed the Latin Builders Association, an influential group in Florida’s tight Republican nominating race.
The group holds big sway with Florida’s Hispanic voters,
especially Miami’s Cuban-Americans, who make up about 10 percent of the Republican primary voters.
As Romney began his address at around 8:30 a.m., about 170 of the 240 available were filled.
The problem, locals say, is Romney’s hard-line stance on immigration, which goes down poorly with many Hispanic voters.
As Reuters correspondent Tim Gaynor wrote from Palm Beach on Thursday, the issue of U.S. border security and what to do with about 12 million illegal immigrants works in favor of Romney’s top rival in Florida, Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Analysts and Florida voters say McCain’s support for secure borders, a guestworker program and a “compassionate” approach to illegal immigration, has resonated, particularly in south Florida, which has a large Latino community.
Romney’s tougher stance is less popular.
“We’ve got to enforce the law, welcoming legal immigration but ending illegal immigration,” he says at most campaign events.
Neck-and-neck with McCain in polls, Romney made a bid for Hispanic voters in his speech on Friday, recalling how the original $37 million fund for a venture capital firm he founded in 1984, Bain Capital, was raised entirely from private individuals led by Ricardo Poma, a Salvadoran businessman living in Miami.
“What you have done with the city of Miami is transform a city that was old and tired into a city that has become a gateway, or a connection point, between North America and Latin America,” he told the builders association.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Joe Skipper (Romney talks with supporters in Miami.)
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One comment so far
Just to let you know that Canadians by the
- Posted by degan whitethousands watch your interesting election. They
are about 100 percent Obama. We are also
confused by all the running around. It is a
very difficult arena. They have to be extremely
tough to handle the travelling, arguing and
media slams. Good luck - may the best person win.
Our elections are so boring but very polite.
We have 4 parties running. The winning party can be taken out of office by the other three parties
which have the majority. This keeps them sort of
honest and on their toes and they dont take too
many holidays. So far the present P>M. is doing
a very good job - and I am not a conservative.
We do have good medicare. It is not perfect but
doctors and hospitals never turn you down. I have
had 10 operations in my life time and they have
cost me “0″. With such a large country as the U.S. I would imagine that each state would look
after its own people. The money comes from the
Federal Government to the Provinces - the Province
then runs its medicare system. Our Province is
the most populated in Canada. Good Luck to y”all