Mitt Romney is living on another planet if he thinks he’ll win a sizable chunk of the Latino vote, according to the mayor of Los Angeles.
Antonio Villaraigosa skewered the presumed Republican presidential nominee on The Ed Show Thursday, saying Team Romney’s desire to win 38% of the Latino vote is laughable.
Indeed, the goal seems highly ambitious. According to a July poll by NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and Telemundo, Obama would beat Romney 67% to 23% among Latinos. Many analysts say it’s crucial for Romney to significantly boost his numbers with Latinos if wants to win this November. President Bush won 40% in 2004, helping him narrowly defeat John Kerry.
“You mentioned [Romney] was somewhere—I was thinking Mars—when [his campaign] thinks they will get anything close to 38% of the Latino vote,” Villaraigosa told Ed Schultz. “I just don’t see it happening.”
Villaraigosa’s criticism comes the same week that Republicans adopted a party platform on immigration that requires employers to check workers’ legal status, and bans federal funding to universities that allow illegal immigrant students to enroll at lower, in-state tuition fees. It also gives the thumbs-up to “self-deportation,” an idea that Romney favors. Villaraigosa pointed to Romney’s endorsement of the strict Alabama and Arizona immigration laws and his vow to the DREAM Act, which halts the deportation of young illegal immigrants. “Those 11 million undocumented have 5 million citizen children, so the party of family values and the man that speaks about family is saying they’re going to have to leave their kids in the United States,” Villaraigosa charged.
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