ABSTRACT
This chapter has two goals. The first is to conduct an in-depth investigation into the strategies used by the two major parties and their candidates to court Latino voters in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The data for this analysis were drawn from a comprehensive database of national political campaign television advertisements, network and affiliate political files, as well as interviews with elite members of each political party and campaign. The second goal is to situate these elections historically to understand appeals made to Latinos in presidential elections and to suggest a strategy for Latinos to attract party attention. Meeting this second goal requires us to understand the ways in which the two parties have responded to the relative diffusion and concentration of Latino voters. If attracting campaign appeals in a democracy influences policy outcomes (Frymer 1999), what is the optimal voting strategy for Latinos?
