VivirLatino

Yesterday’s midterm elections saw the addition of some Latino surnames to the political rosters including Tea Party Latino poster bebe Marco Rubio who won the Senate race in Florida.

But is having more Latinos in elected positions more important than having the right Latinos in office? Have some Latino voters gotten caught up in representational fever based on ethnicity and not on who will best represents our interests?

MicEvHill.Com points out some of the Latino losses and gains and what they mean specifically for the issues around immigration:

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Losses in the House. Two members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) lost their bids for reelection to Republican challengers: Representative Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX) and Representative John Salazar (D-CO). Three other CHC Members were locked in tight races at the time of this writing and could well lose their seats: Representative Jim Costa (D-CA), Representatiive Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Representative Solomon Ortiz (D-TX). This is an important development, not just because of the symoloss of these staunchly pro-immigrant Members. But it also is important because it may well have provided immigration restrictionists with a model for winning seats in CHC districts in the furture: recruit conservative Hispanic Republicans to run against CHC Members and then flood the district with massive amounts of television ads and money that CHC Members cannot compete with.

Election of Immigration Restrictionist-Oriented Hispanic Republicans. Six Hispanic Republicans were elected to either the House or the Senate on anti-immigrant platforms. This includes Senator-Elect Marco Rubio (R-FL) who was elected to the Senate. It also includes Representatives-Elect Quico Canseco (R-TX), Bill Flores (R-TX), Jaime Herrera (R-WA), Raul Labrador (R-ID), and David Rivera (R-FL). This is an important devlopment, in that it could enable immigration restricionists in Congress to make some of these new anti-immigrant Republican Hispanics the face of some of their restrictionist legislative efforts, thereby dulling any charges that pro-immigrant Hispanics might make that their immigration restrictionist legislation is anti-Latino or anti-Hispanic. Additionally, two Hispanic Republicans who ran largely on immigration restrictionisit platforms were elected governors of New Mexico and Nevada. There already is talk in Washington of Senator-Elect Marco Rubio or Governor-Elect Susana Martinez (R-NM) being possible Vice Presidential running mates for whoever winds up winning the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, an eventuality that could have a profound impact on that election.

Immigration certainly isn’t the only issue of interest to the Latino community but it is tied into to ALL other issues from the economy and unemployment to national security and education. Many if not all of the candidates above may be more likely to play divide and conquer good immigrant Latino vs bad immigrant Latino as they move their careers forward.