Angelenos tuning into tonight’s State of the Union address
may notice a bit more local flavor than in years past.
After President Bush’s speech, Los Angeles Mayor and UCLA
alumnus Antonio Villaraigosa will deliver the Democratic
Party’s Spanish language response.
While an English language rebuttal from the president’s
opposing party is a traditional feature of the State of the Union
postgame, this will mark only the third year that an official
Spanish language response will be offered. As the largest minority
voting bloc, the Hispanic vote has become highly sought after in
recent years.
And this year’s address and response could prove pivotal
for two parties jockeying for position in the prelude to the 2006
midterm elections.
Tonight will mark the first time the Spanish response is given
by a representative of a city rather than a state ““ an
illustration of Villaraigosa’s rapid rise to national
prominence.
The previous two Spanish responses were delivered by New Mexico
Gov. Bill Richardson in 2004 and then jointly by New Jersey Sen.
Bob Menendez and New Mexico Sen. Jeff Bingaman in 2005. With Bush
coming off the worst political year in his presidency, both the
address and the responses will take on increased significance this
year as the president will try to right the Republicans’ ship
as the midterm elections approach, said Matthew Baum, associate
professor of political science.
He said since Bush’s approval ratings are idling at sub-50
percent levels, and Republicans recognize the importance of
maintaining control in Congress after the upcoming elections, the
bar is set extra high this year.
Bush will try to use the address as an opportunity to start the
new year off right, Baum said.
“There’s no question that the White House is going
to try to sort of reset the table,” Baum said. “What
they’re likely to do is take a page from Bill Clinton, and
rather than announce big new initiatives … it will be a bunch of
smaller, more moderate policy proposals.”
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the Republican National
Committee, said while Bush will likely focus on issues of national
security and the war on terrorism, he does not believe the
political climate will dictate the president’s speech.
Since the speech is an annual forum for the president to address
the nation, Bounds said it will not be used for political
positioning in the run-up to the midterm elections.
But in keeping an eye on the elections, both parties are trying
to garner as much support as possible from newly emerging voting
blocs. By having a Spanish language response, Baum said, the
Democrats are trying to reach out to a group whose influence has
grown in recent years and has been more aggressively courted by
both parties.
“I think there’s clearly a competition between the
parties to woo the Hispanic vote, which is expanding
rapidly,” he said.
Though the Hispanic community traditionally votes Democratic,
exit polls showed Bush winning 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in
the 2004 presidential election, up almost 10 points from the 2000
election.
Bounds said this is indicative not of the efforts of the party
to court the Hispanic community, but rather that the values of the
Republican party ““ like education reform ““ “are
those that resonate very well with the Hispanic
community.”
The Democratic Party will try to raise their profile within the
Hispanic community by featuring one of the party’s rising
stars. The choice of Villaraigosa to give this speech reflects his
status both within the Democratic Party and on the national
front.
“As the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in more than a
century, we are proud to have his diverse voice within the
party,” said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and House
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi in a joint statement. “As
mayor, Villaraigosa is on the frontlines every single day fighting
for the American people and is an example of the exceptional
leadership that is the hallmark of Democrats everywhere.”
Though Democratic leaders asked Villaraigosa to give the speech,
Villaraigosa only agreed after being guaranteed editorial control
over the speech. The English and Spanish responses will focus on
similar issues but Villaraigosa’s speech will not be a
translation of the English language speech, said Ben Golombek, a
spokesman for Villaraigosa.
The State of the Union address will begin at 6 p.m.
PST.