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| RODRIGUEZ: How many think she's Latina |
The
“highlight,” so to speak, of her political career on anything other than a
municipal level was back in 2010 when she ran for Congress – and lost to Joe
Walsh in the GOP primary.
BUT
BRADY, THE state senator from Bloomington whose 2010 bid for governor collapsed
because he became too associated with rural Illinois, hopes that having a
suburban person will make him a little more amenable to Chicago-area voters in
the 2014 campaign cycle.
What
I find intriguing about this is the fact that one of Brady’s challengers, Dan
Rutherford of Pontiac, came up with suburban business executive Steve Kim to be
his lieutenant governor running mate.
Political
operatives openly admit that part of what Rutherford gains is a possible
outreach to the growing Asian population (Kim is of Korean ethnic origins).
And
now, Brady is giving us (as in potential voters) the Latina who isn’t. “Rodriguez”
is her married name.
ALTHOUGH
I’M SURE Brady won’t object if many voters don’t realize that fact and presume
that she is. This appointment becomes his gesture (not much of one, to be
honest) toward the Latino community.
Which
I’m sure he will try to use in ways to deflect criticism of the fact that many
of his policy thoughts and political alliances will be with people who would
prefer to think of diverse ethnicity as a problem our nation must deal with –
rather than just the reality that offers up so many advantages!
The
Republicans will claim that criticism of them is wrong. After all, they’re
trying to include all kinds of people. Actually, all kinds of people who are
just like themselves – although that’s a thought for a future commentary.
 |
| Will Steve Kim really shift Asian votes to GOP? |
For
today, I have to note that it seems odd to me that these “gestures” of support
toward varied ethnicity are being done by GOP candidates with regards to
lieutenant governor candidates.
THAT’S
THE POSITION that has oft been described by political observers as, “not being
worth a bucket of warm spit.”
That is the political
position Republican officials think is worthy of someone who isn’t quite WASP-y
enough to fit an image? It isn’t quite the way that the party should be going
after ethnic voters – not if they’re at all serious about achieving results.
 |
| Rutherford reaching out to Latinos? |
The
fact that those of us with differing ethnic origins will be able to see through
this kind of blatant appeal will be the reason why Kim probably won’t be
responsible for getting significant numbers of Asian voters to cast votes for
GOP candidates.
And
as for Rodriguez? It’s her name. I’m not denouncing her. But I’m expecting the
ethnicity confusion to create quite a bit of humorous moments in coming months.
NOT
THAT THIS strategy ought to be surprising. Because the very same Illinois
Republican officials tried the same thing back in 2010.
Let’s
not forget that Kim was the Republican nominee for Illinois attorney general,
while Steve Enriquez was the GOP choice to serve as Illinois secretary of
state.
Of
course, they ran against Lisa Madigan and Jesse White, respectively. Those two
turned out to be the biggest vote-getters of the 2010 election cycle in
Illinois – and also the two who were never thought to have a serious chance at
victory! Kim’s backers may boast that he got more than 1 million votes in the
2010 general election, but he still got his butt whupped by Lisa Madigan.
The
day the GOP comes up with an electoral winner is the day the political party
will be taken seriously amongst the growing ethnic populations. Until then, it
just comes across as the kind of tokenism politics that Republicans often
accuse Democrats of engaging in!
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