McCain accused of immigration flip-flop as fight for Latino voters heats up

WASHINGTON — A group of state and local Hispanic lawmakers on Friday accused GOP presidential candidate John McCain of "flip-flopping" on immigration.

"Is it comprehensive immigration reform, or is it enforcement?" asked Iris Y. Martinez, a Democratic state senator from Illinois. "He can't have either/or — it has to be one."

A McCain spokesperson denounced the accusations as "a pathetic, partisan ploy."

The comments came at a press conference during the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual gathering.

McCain and presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, are scheduled to appear before the NALEO convention separately on Saturday as they wage an aggressive battle for Latino voters.

McCain has been popular with Hispanics in large part because he championed a measure that would have given many illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. The measure died in the Senate last year, after strong opposition from conservatives.

However, McCain has backed away from his immigration bill during the campaign, saying that the border must be secure before any legalization efforts.

At Friday's news conference organized by the Democratic National Committee, Pedro Colon, a state representative from Wisconsin, charged that McCain's "straight talk bus has done a U-turn on us."

Ana Navarro, who co-chairs McCain's Hispanic advisory board, said that the charge is false.

"John McCain risked his political skin" on the immigration bill and is committed to immigration reform, she said.

In addition, McCain recognizes that a new bill must be crafted to accomplish that goal and to regain the confidence of the American people, she said.

The sharp words reflect the importance of the Hispanic vote this November.

Political experts and Hispanic groups say the two candidates' battle for support could lead to unprecedented outreach efforts, including a record purchase of Spanish-language advertising.

"It will be an intense battle," said Cecilia Munoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group. "Both sides are going after Latino voters aggressively."

Nathan Gonzales, an analyst at the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, said that Latinos could be a key voting bloc in several battleground states, including Florida, New Mexico and Colorado.

Even in hotly contested states with smaller Latino populations, Hispanic votes could be critical, experts said. For example, Pennsylvania has 261,000 eligible Latino voters and Ohio has 133,000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a non partisan research group in Washington.

Jeffrey S. Passel, a demographer and senior research associate with the center, said that a boost in registration rates is likely this year in large part because of a massive campaign by Latino organizations, including NALEO, and Spanish-language media outlets to promote citizenship and voting registration.

Some advocacy groups have estimated Hispanic turnout at 9.2 million to 11.9 million this year.

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Lydia Camarillo, vice president of the nonpartisan Southwest Voter Registration Education Project in San Antonio, which seeks to increase Latino voter participation, said that candidates must do more than advertise in Spanish and "put mariachis on TV" to win over Hispanic voters.

The candidates need to come to Hispanic communities and talk about top issues including education, jobs and the economy, health care, the war in Iraq, and immigration, she said.

Camarillo also said Obama would gain a great advantage with the Latino community if he picked New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as vice-president. Richardson, who dropped out of the presidential race earlier this year, is Hispanic and speaks Spanish fluently.

But Gonzales said that in major battleground states, "Republicans might see an opportunity to gain some ground that they lost in 2006 with Latino voters."

Eunice Moscoso's e-mail is emoscoso@coxnews.com

On the Web:

Pew Hispanic Center: www.pewhispanic.org

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project: www.svrep.org