ABSTRACT
For analysts of Latino politics, however, the 1992 elections provide the clearest and most revealing indicators to date of political patterns within at least some segments of the Latino population. The 1992 elections brought continued expansion of the conservative political base of Hispanics in Florida, especially Cuban Americans, and enhanced their political incorporation at the local, state, and even federal levels. By 1992, however, there were some signs of Cuban disaffection with the George Bush presidency. On election day, Bush's margin of victory in Florida was fewer than eighty-six thousand votes, a dramatic reduction of his almost one million vote margin in 1988. Cuban Americans, from whom Bush anticipated strong support, were a particularly important element in his re-election strategy. On the issue of reapportionment, for example, Cuban Republicans were nothing short of catalytic in dramatically modifying the Democratic majority's plans for congressional and state legislative district lines.
