Home > The Border Line > Archives > 2008 > July > 29
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Obama to spend $20 million on Latino voters
The Barack Obama campaign announced Tuesday it is joining forces with the Democratic National Committee in a $20 million effort to mobilize Hispanic voters in key swing states in the fall presidential election.
The Obama campaign will target Hispanic voters in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida, according to Temo Figueroa, the Latino voter director for the Obama campaign, and will involve not only advertising and online organizing but also voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote efforts and the training of some 500 grass-roots organizers.
The Republican National Committee, in response to the Obama announcement, issued a statement saying Obama’s policies “are not in line with Latino economic interests.” And it provided reporters with background material of media accounts in which the comments of Hispanic business leaders clashed with tax and trade policies proposed by Obama.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment
U.S. attorney responds to federal ruling on border agents
While members of Congress — including Sen. John Cornyn of Texas — expressed disappointment in a federal ruling that upheld most of the convictions against two former Border Patrol agents, the prosecutor in the case praised the decision.
The agents — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos — are serving 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
The case has become a cause celebre on talk radio shows and among groups that advocate tougher border controls. Supporters say that the former agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against a criminal intruder who was in the United States illegally.
The prosecutor in the case — U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas — said he was “pleased” with the federal ruling.
“By affirming the convictions of the most serious charges against Mr. Compean and Mr. Ramos, the court has validated what this office has said all along - this prosecution was about the rule of law, plain and simple,” Sutton said, in a statement.
He also had some words for lawmakers and others rallying for Compean and Ramos.
He asked them to “re-evaluate their positions in light of the court record.”
“Those who understand the record and the evidence introduced at trial will realize that the actions of Compean and Ramos in shooting an unarmed and fleeing suspect were serious crimes which had to be prosecuted in order to maintain the rule of law,” Sutton said.
