Rio Grande Guardian

August 31, 2009

Rio Grande Guardian: Famed Latino group gears up

to influence 2011 redistricting process

By Steve Taylor

Southwest Voter Registration Education Project President Antonio Gonzalez. (Photo: RGG/Steve Taylor)

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 29 - The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which has registered and mobilized Latino voters for 35 years, is gearing up to do all it can to influence the next round of redistricting in Texas.

In 2011, state lawmakers will draw new boundary lines for congressional and state House and Senate districts. The importance of the process is heightened by the fact that Texas, because of population growth, is likely to gain three or four new congressional seats after the 2010 Census count is taken.

The SVREP, which is non-partisan, believes it can best influence the redistricting process by increasing the turnout of Latino voters in the 2010 elections and get more Latino candidates elected to the Texas House and Senate.

“The 2010 elections could decide restricting and this is the most fundamental determining factor in how people of color get elected to federal and state office,” said Antonio Gonzalez, president of SVREP.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian at his organization’s 35th anniversary banquet in San Antonio last Thursday, Gonzalez explained his group's strategy for the 2010 elections. He said that in Texas, SVREP would focus much of its efforts on Dallas and Houston. The group will also be busy, he said, in east Los Angeles in California, central Colorado, south Florida and Las Vegas, Nevada.

“You have to look ahead to strategically deploy your assets. In Texas, Dallas and Houston are the areas where there is pent up demand. You have large numbers of Hispanic voters but you don’t have significant influence over who wins in congressional and legislative seats and even county commissioner districts,” he said.

Gonzalez, who grew up in San Antonio but now lives in California, explained that his group is not concentrating its resources on South Texas right now because “the population has been percolating there for a long time.” That is not the case in Dallas and Houston, he said. “In Houston and Dallas, the growth is modern. They are breakthrough places. You can get a congressional seat there. They are also swing areas for the state legislature. Essentially the working class suburbs are switching. They are interesting places for us to do more.”

Gonzalez pointed out that the Texas House could be on the verge of changing hands. Currently, there are 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats. “One of the representatives in this room tonight could be the next speaker,” Gonzalez said, gesturing to the audience. In the audience were state Reps. Mike Villarreal, Joaquin Castro, and Tracy King, all South Texas Democrats.

One of the speakers at the banquet was Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio and Joaquin Castro’s twin bother. Julian Castro declared in his speech that he could never have become mayor without the work of SVREP and its inspiration, the late William C. Velásquez.

Gonzalez pointed out that since Velasquez first opened SVREP’s doors in 1974, the group has trained over 100,000 Latino leaders across America and has registered to vote 2.5 million Latinos. He said Velasquez’s legacy is evident in the growing influence of the diverse Latino base in more recent elections.

“Mayor Castro’s remarks are well received. We are like ants. You don’t think we can move a lot but collectively we move a mountain. We just do it every day a little bit and you never stop. We are not the big bang operation,” Gonzalez said.

In a couple of weeks, SVREP will unveil “Texas Rising,” an in-depth look at the changing demographics in the LoneStarState.

“Texas is in a transition period. Once upon a time it was a state where Latinos and African Americans, even though in a minority, had significant influence. That changed 15 years ago and it is beginning to shift again,” Gonzalez said.

“With 'Texas Rising,' we will unveil a descriptive and analytical piece where can you look at the impact of demographic change, the surge in the Latino vote. We are now at about 2.5 million registered Latino voters in this state and it is only going to grow. In 2008, we had 21 percent of the votes cast, and 24 percent of those registered. You see this inexorable force and, we look, substantively, at what it all will mean. We are very interested in that transition.”

In recent years, the growing influence of Latino legislators in Texas has been put to good use in “staving off” bad legislation, Gonzalez said. In the coming years, he predicted, their increased political clout will be used to enact good legislation.

“More pro-poor policies, more public investment,” Gonzalez said. “My agitation is that Latinos should jump into the leadership of dot green era, it is a huge job creator, and given the sort of drought we are living through in South Texas, it’s a real challenge for the Latino leadership. You have to rethink this new policy niche because you are not going to have water. It means we need new infrastructure, new policies and new investment strategies.”

Nationwide, the growth of the Latino vote appears inexorable. Gonzalez pointed out that in 2008, 125,000 new Latino voters were added to the election rolls through SVREP’s partnerships with hundreds of Latino leaders and several national organizations. Of the Latinos registered in a seven-state effort that year, 23,000 were high school and college students in Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and North Carolina. In Texas, Gonzalez said, SVREP registered 23,000 new Latino voters and mobilized 50,000 Latinas for the state primaries.

Gonzalez pointed out that in the 2008 elections, the Latino influence grew to about 12.1 million registered voters. These voters cast an estimated 9.7 million votes in the November presidential election, according to the William C. Velásquez Institute. More than half of the Latino expansion is in states where SVREP works, Gonzalez said.

Asked how SVREP remains non-partisan when it seems as though only Democrats are electing Hispanics to office these days, Gonzalez said: “What we advocate for are districts that Latino voters can influence and determine the outcome; can control. That is legitimate and legal. That’s our mission. We advocate for effective power and governance. We want the voters to be able to decide, including our voters.”

The above article is the first in a two-part series about the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. Part two will be published on Monday.