The story details the crush of new Latino voters in key states voting today - nearly all of which is inspired by the urgency these voters feel in making their voices heard amid the chatter about the contentious immigration issue. After hearing the endless put downs from the political right and their talking head allies on conservative radio, hundreds of thousands of Hispanics have responded by applying for citizenship.

The NY Times article put it this way: “Latinos are gearing up for Tuesday’s voting with an eye toward making Hispanics a decisive voting bloc nationwide in November.”

It would appear this growing group of voters is already making a difference in the primary voting season. Take last week’s Republican primary in Florida where John McCain and Mitty Romney were essentially even among white voters, (34% to 33%, advantage Mitty), but Latinos favored McCain by a whopping 54% to 14% margin, giving him the state, and a huge win in his likely path to the GOP nomination.

McCain, you will recall, has been ripped by the political right and the radio talking heads for his previous support of an immigration bill that would have given some illegal immigrants a long path to possible citizenship. And so, ironically, it may well be that McCain’s more centrist views on immigration could have been the tipping point in his critical win in Florida in attracting the voters that put him over the top.

In the Democratic dream matchup  between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Latinos are sure to play a key role as well in the Super Tuesday voting. The 24 states voting on Super Tuesday include nearly 60 percent of the nation’s Hispanic electorate, with states like California, Arizona, New Mexico and New York participating in what amounts to a national primary.

That bodes well for Clinton, who is benefitting from the leftover appeal her husband, former President Bill, has among Hispanics. One poll has Billary leading Obama among Hispanics in California by a huge margin, 52% to 19%, although the challenger to the Clinton Machine is doing much better in Arizona, where another poll has him over Billary among Hispanics by a 53% to 37% margin.

All trends show Hispanics being a growth industry for Democrats, with 57% of registered Hispanic voters identifying themselves as Demos as compared to 23% for the Republicans. It was only four years ago that George W. Bush pulled over 40% of the Hispanic vote in the 2004 presidential election, but that was before right-wing Republicans went bonkers on the immigration issue.

“The hard-line rhetoric on immigration is turning off all Latinos,” said Lionel Sosa, a Republican advertising executive in San Antonio who has handled Hispanic outreach for the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and both President Bushes. “When people talk about building a wall and sending those Mexicans back, it comes off as anti-Latino. We say: `You’re talking about my family, and I don’t like it.’ ”

Sosa, in making those comments to the NY Times, is speaking to the truth in the numbers seen in the rush to citzenship. For the fiscal year ending October 2007, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received 1.4 million applications for naturalization from green card holders, the vast majority of whom are Latino. The Wall Street Journal reports that those 1.4 million applications are nearly double the volume received the previous fiscal year.

All of this points to bad news for the Republican Party, the talk show nation, and all the angry gueritos who have Hispanic-phobia and see the Balkanization of America when a new panaderia pops up in some little town in Iowa.

Ni modo, gang, America has never been a stagnant place. Ya es hora, as the Hispanic media campaign for citizenship put it, and the hour has arrived where Latino voters may play a big role in shaping the 2008 presidential race. 

 - Joaquin Tijerina, Chisme Blogger