ST PAUL, Minnesota (AFP) — Nine million Hispanic voters scattered across battleground states pose a dilemma for Republican White House hopeful John McCain: how to win their support without angering his party's base.
According to the polls, some two-thirds of Hispanic voters back the Democrats and their White House hopeful Barack Obama compared to a third for the Republicans.
And that sliver of support is falling since McCain sought and failed twice to get two projects to reform the country's immigration laws and bring some 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows through Congress.
Yet in deadlocked states, Hispanic support could be the factor which tips the scales in favor of one party or the other on election day, November 4.
The balancing act facing McCain, who Thursday accepted his party's nomination to be its presidential nominee, is how to attract more Hispanics without eroding his support among core conservatives.
"It's going to be very interesting and very difficult to see how he can do this," said George Mursulli, head of a non-partisan group called DemocraciaUSA, set up to encourage Hispanic citizens to vote.
"We will have to see how he can appeal both to the Latino community as well as the party's base which has been anti-immigrant and anti-Latino."
Very little attention was paid to the issue of immigration during the Republicans' four-day convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, something which might not bode well as the White House race hurtles into its final stretch.
McCain only alluded to the issue once in his address to the convention saying: "We believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential from the boy whose descendants arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers. We're all God's children and we're all Americans."
Indeed the official party platform adopted by the delegates calls for tougher law enforcement, including a crackdown on illegal immigrants and for a fence being constructed along the Mexico border to be swiftly completed.
The debate on US immigration laws is seen as a determining factor for Latino voters in which way to vote, Mursulli said.
Last year McCain co-authored with Democratic senator Edward Kennedy a bill designed to legalize the status of millions of illegal immigrants, many of whom have lived for decades in the United States, working and raising families.
But the proposal, which included provisions for a path to citizenship for illegal workers, failed to win passage in the face of criticism from conservatives, who said it rewarded illegal immigrants with an amnesty.
McCain came under attack from the Obama camp for allegedly flip-flopping on the issue, when during a debate McCain said he would no longer vote for the bill.
Instead he maintained the first priority was to secure American borders.
Conservatives however had been unhappy McCain's initial stance on immigration, Mursulli said.
And the debate on immigration within the Republican party "just seemed to turn in a circle and became quite anti-immigrant and anti-Latino with the vast majority of immigrants leaving the party," Mursulli said.
"Those comments echoed around the Latino community, across the country."
Latino support for the Republicans, which reached some 44 percent for President George W. Bush when he sought re-election in 2004, has consequently fallen dramatically.
The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington noted recently that only 23 percent of Hispanics support McCain, with two-thirds throwing their weight behind Obama.
Traditionally the Hispanic community had overwhelmingly backed Obama's former rival Hillary Clinton.
"Obama is a man who has no historical ties to the Latino community, and has only gradually to begun to build up some support," said Mursulli.
"But the partisan perception among the Latino community is that the Democratic Party is paying more attention to such issues (as immigration) and is more interested in who we are.
"The kind of comments we have heard from the Republicans about the Latino community has left us with a bad taste in our mouths."
He said it was still not too late for the Republicans to claw back support among Hispanic voters, but argued: "The Republicans have to choose. The party base or Hispanics?
"And how can they connect with both? Everything is possible in politics, but I think it will be super difficult."
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