Fiorina town hall reaches out to Latinos

Reporting from Sacramento Reaching out to a key voting bloc, Republican Senate nominee Carly Fiorina held a Latino-themed town hall Saturday afternoon in Sacramento, heaping praise on California’s Latino community for representing “the best of who this nation is.””Bienvenidos,” Fiorina beamed to the crowd of less than 20, who were nearly matched in size by her staff in a downtown Mexican eatery.

The event, paired with Fiorina’s launch of a new Spanish-language website, Amigos de Carly, is part of an ethnic outreach tour for the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive in her bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. Last weekend, Fiorina took a spin through a predominantly African American Juneteenth festival in South Los Angeles. The moves represent a sharp shift in rhetorical emphasis, though not policy positions, after a GOP primary in which Fiorina hewed to the political right.

On Saturday, she laced her stump speech with anecdotes that recount her ascent from secretary to chief executive – “the American dream,” as she put it — with new references. “The Latino community is a foundation for the American dream going forward,” she said.

Fiorina’s direct appeal to Latinos follows in the footsteps of her GOP counterpart in the governor’s race, former EBay chief Meg Whitman, who began advertising on Spanish-language TV stations during the World Cup. Most political analysts believe that any statewide Republican must garner a substantial chunk, perhaps one-third, of the Latino vote to win in November.”The Latino community is big, and therefore it’s important,” Fiorina said.But Fiorina faces one barrier Whitman does not: her support for the new anti-illegal immigrant law in Arizona. She made no mention of it during the town hall, but told reporters afterward, “I do support the law, and I think it was a tragedy the law was necessary.”

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco, the chairman of Fiorina’s Latino-outreach efforts who attended the town hall, seemed to acknowledge that the Arizona law could be an albatross. But, he said, “it’s better to be firm on your position, know where you stand than be wishy-washy.”Boxer called the law “divisive” in Los Angeles on Friday. “In the Latino community there is tremendous opposition to it,” she said.

State Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), a leading Latino legislator, said the GOP overtures to Latino voters demonstrated their power. “What a dramatic change from the time period of Proposition 187, when you could simply openly attack the Latino community and there wouldn’t be a political consequence to that,” he said, referring to the 1994 initiative that sought to cut public services to illegal immigrants.

Cedillo, a liberal, said Latinos tend to be socially conservative and distrustful of government and, therefore, are “poised to be Republicans.” But with Republicans’ anti-immigrant rhetoric in the recent primary, he said, they “may have dug themselves in a hole that’s too difficult to dig out of.”One issue Fiorina is seeking to exploit among Latinos is the fallout from environmental restrictions. Water deliveries have been severely cut to Central Valley farmlands by the federal Endangered Species Act, which protects the Delta smelt, a small fish. Fiorina wants to carve out an exemption to the landmark environmental law to increase the water flow; Boxer does not.

“Tens of thousands of Latinos lost their jobs,” Fiorina said of the effect of the water cutbacks, one of several times she mentioned the issue. “Fish are not more important than families.”She pledged that working to overturn the limits would be the “first thing I will do,” if elected.The Fiorina event ended much the same way it began: in Spanish.”Muchas gracias,” she concluded, to applause.

Stormy Daniels said that she will not run for U.S. Senate in her home state

NEW ORLEANS Louisiana-born porn star Stormy Daniels announced Thursday that she will not run for U.S. Senate in her home state, ending a yearlong flirtation with politics that began as Republican incumbent Sen. David Vitter was working to overcome a sex scandal.In an e-mailed statement, Daniels said she cannot afford a run for the Senate and, comparing herself to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, complained that the media never took her interest in the race seriously.

“To begin with, like Governor Palin, I have become a target of the cynical stalwarts of the status quo,” Daniels said. “Simply because I did not fit in their mold of what an independent working woman should be, the media and political elite have sought to relegate my sense of civic responsibility to mere sideshow antics.”

Daniels recently declared herself a convert to the GOP with a press release making light of news that the Republican National Committee had picked up a nearly $2,000 tab at a sex-themed California nightclub. But her political publicity has been handled by Democratic operative Brian Welsh.

If nothing else, a Daniels campaign for the Republican nomination would have been a constant reminder of the 2007 scandal that broke when Vitter’s phone number appeared in the records of a Washington prostitution ring. Other than admitting a “serious sin,” he has steadfastly refused to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, his political career seems to have survived intact. He has raised plenty of campaign money while bashing the policies of President Barack Obama, who is not popular in the state.

At the end of last year, Vitter had about $4.5 million in campaign cash, compared with about $2 million for his Democratic rival, U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon. Updated campaign finance reports for the first quarter of this year were due Thursday at the Federal Election Commission. The Vitter campaign released a summary of the latest report showing more than $5 million on hand as of March 31, with $1.1 million raised and more than $618,000 spent during the quarter.

Vitter may yet gain another well-known rival because former Republican state legislator James David Cain has said he may enter the race as an independent. Vitter so far has no major opposition in the GOP primary.

Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) said during a listening tour last spring that she decided to explore a possible campaign after fans tried to draft her in light of Vitter’s troubles.

“I completely ignored the whole thing for a while, and then I just got so much encouragement and feedback that I thought at the very least I owe it to myself and to the people to come out and see what they have to say,” Daniels said at the time.

An exploratory committee incorporated last year solicited funds through the Web site TeamStormy.com, but because Daniels never became a candidate, she was not required to report finances to the FEC.

The TeamStormy site has not been updated in months, nor have there been any posts on the TeamStormy Twitter account as of midday Thursday. On another Twitter site, Daniels has made no mention of the possible campaign, but has continued to promote her adult films and personal appearances – including one this week in Raleigh, N.C.

Her political story took a bizarre turn last summer when she was arrested on a domestic violence battery charge after she allegedly hit her husband at their home in Tampa, Fla., during a dispute about laundry and unpaid bills. Charges later were dropped.

Her arrest came two days after Welsh, the Democratic operative, said his parked 1996 Audi was damaged by fire outside his apartment in an upscale downtown area of New Orleans. She didn’t say much about her campaign after that until her announcement earlier this month that she was becoming a Republican.

Daniels accused Vitter of financing his campaign with special interest money but said she still might support him if he goes along with her proposal to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and the federal income tax in favor of a “fair tax” plan that includes a national sales tax.(AP)