How Whitman Lost the Hispanic Vote
Politico reports:
SEIU, which spent millions carrying Jerry Brown among Hispanic voters, circulated a memo in the race's late days arguing that a combination of its campaign and Meg Whitman's nanny mess shifted the race dramatically out of her reach in the last month.
The causes are open to debate, but the polling — from the Field Poll and from pollster David Binder — is striking: The Field Poll had Whitman down just 43% to 40% in mid-September; the gap broadened to 57% to 27% by late October — a net 27-point shift in Brown's favor among a huge segment of the electorate.
In Binder's polling, the gap had already begun to widen — to 49% to 28% — by late September; he also has the floor falling out for Whitman by the end of the race, with an astonishing 66% to 19% lead for Brown among Hispanics.
Republicans just can't win in parts of the West without fixing this problem.
