In the 2004 election season, John Kerry's general election campaign received $75 million that it used from August to November.*  That's a whole lot of cash.   But it spent less than $1 million on its Latino media and political efforts.  That's obscenely small, inexcusable, even negligent.

Not everyone, however, has adhered to the worn out, burned out approach that led to this ridiculous strategy.  Many operatives in 2004 acted against advice offered by the top Kerry strategists who argued that there was no reason to talk to black voters before November (because they always support Democrats), that reaching out to faith voters was a waste of time (because churchgers only care about abortion), and that Latinos are Democratic base voters (because they are minorities).  This attitude led to significant drop-off in black support for Kerry in Ohio and Florida, to a belief that voters with morals only supported Republicans in 2004, and to Bush winning 40% of the supposedly-Democratic Latino vote.  

One innovator on the Latino front was the New Democrat Network.  They have now followed their efforts in 2004 by running radio, television, and Internet ads aimed at World Cup soccer fans in the United States.   The campaign starts today, as the first World Cup matches are played, and will continue for five months.  The group's founder, Simon Rosenberg, deserves credit for continuing to pursue a group of voters that the larger Democratic establishment has ignored while the Republicans have simultaneously pursued in a smart, aggressive manner.  (Of course, the right-wing and the White House are about to destroy all their hard work with their immigration agenda.)

The NDN knows that politics, unlike soccer, is more than a game.  Their innovation and persistence deserve our praise.

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* This $75 million in general election money was in addition to the immense amount that Kerry spent winning the nomination and leading up the the July 2004 Democratic convention.

AP Article: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/C OURTING_HISPANICS?SITE=KREM&SECTION= HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT