Huffington Post (Op-Ed)
By Patrick Davis
June 3, 2015
Albuquerque
- On the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico's most populous city where
Latino residents outnumber Anglos, African-Americans and Asians by a
wide margin, groups
on both sides of the political spectrum are organizing new ways to
engage and turnout Latino voters.
Behind
the closed doors of an Albuquerque hotel conference room last week,
conservative political operatives and conservative business leaders from
across the Southwest
converged to hear from Republican Party leaders and Koch brothers
funded operatives on new ways conservative groups were quietly luring
Latinos into a political movement that actively works against them.
In
January 2014, Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-funded conservative
'grassroots' organization, quietly laid off its staff and closed the
doors on their New Mexico affiliate.
The Huffington Post reported the news:
Americans
for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by the billionaire Koch
brothers, is pulling out of New Mexico amid the rollout of a
multi-million dollar anti-Obamacare
ad campaign, ProgressNow New Mexico has confirmed.
Americans
for Prosperity expanded to New Mexico as part of multi-state expansion
to thwart support for President Barack Obama's reelection in 2012.
Just
over a year later, the group is "reallocating their resources
elsewhere," and won't have any "boots on the ground" in New Mexico,
state field representative Pam Wolfe
told ProgressNow, a progressive grassroots organization based in
Albuquerque, N.M.
Progressive
groups claimed victory over AFP's failure to organize enough
traditional conservative voters to join the movement in the
minority-majority state just after
progressive groups organized to defeat the nation's first municipal
abortion ban by engaging Hispanic and Latino women to turn out to vote
against the proposal backed by the Catholic Church.
But
AFP's commitment to "reallocate their resources elsewhere" kept local
progressive groups on the lookout. They soon noticed another
Koch-backed organization, The Libre
Initiative, ramping up staff and visibility in non-traditional
conservative communities that had long been the sole work area of
Democrats and socially progressive non-profits.
"Represented
at [a 2014 conservative donors'] summit were groups such as Americans
for Prosperity, Mercatus Center, the Libre Initiative, and more -- all
part of the well
funded network able to contribute massive amounts of cash into
political causes anonymously."
The
Libre Initiative ('libre' is Spanish for 'liberty') is at the forefront
of Republicans' national efforts to recruit Hispanic voters to their
cause. Here's how the
Bridge Project explains Libre's work:
They
brand themselves as a "grassroots organization" founded "to empower
Hispanics" and advance "liberty, freedom and prosperity," but they are
run by Republican operatives
and financed almost entirely by the Koch network.
Outwardly,
the LIBRE Initiative seems like a local service-oriented organization;
they sponsor local festivals, help undocumented citizens obtain drivers
licenses, and
hold seminars on entrepreneurship.
While
LIBRE talks obliquely about economic freedom and personal
responsibility during their grassroots community outreach, they're
playing a long game. Their ultimate
goal is to build trust in the community and thus build a more receptive
audience for their partisan messages...
However,
the policies that LIBRE supports hurt the Latino community. An obvious
example is immigration policy. LIBRE claims to be for comprehensive
immigration reform,
but their actual agenda seems to be providing political cover for the
GOP's anti-immigrant agenda. Daniel Garza, the group's executive
director, said in 2012 that President Obama's executive order protecting
DREAMers from deportation, or DACA, was "pandering"
and "dangerous." He also questioned whether the move would provide any
economic benefit. LIBRE's position on immigration seems to be a moving
target. Garza testified more recently that he's for keeping the
well-received DACA program because it already went
into effect, but he's against the program DAPA, which extends
protection to the family of DREAMers, because it's executive over-reach.
Their
advocacy against the interests of the community that they supposedly
serve doesn't end with immigration. LIBRE spent millions on ads that
attacked supporters of
Obamacare even though, according to The Nation, "Latinos are more
likely to be uninsured than any other group in the US." Policies pushed
by the Koch network generally, such as opposition to the minimum wage
and President Obama's plan to offer two free years
of community college, are also harmful to Latinos.
As
Libre's presence expands into new states, local press is taking note
and many appear surprised to learn of the conservative agenda behind the
seemingly innocuous new
organizing group.
As the Associated Press noted in 2014:
"Its
organizers pitch conservative ideals while offering tutorials on U.S.
immigration law, support for overhauling the broken immigration system
that stops short of campaigning
for the Senate's bipartisan bill and collecting donations for the
unaccompanied children crossing the United States-Mexico border
illegally. In effect, it is a shadow GOP -- one with a gentle emphasis
on social services and assimilation over a central party
often seen as hostile to immigrants and minorities."
And
Libre is not wasting any time implementing their agenda. In late May, a
select group of political operatives and business leaders were invited
to hear from Republican
Party leaders and Libre staff about their efforts to gain trust with
Hispanic voters by ostensibly educating them about obtaining healthcare
under Obamacare, drivers' licenses for undocumented families and more.
Never
mind that the speakers in the room included New Mexico Lt. Gov. John
Sanchez (R) who, along with Gov. Susana Martinez, publicly opposed
Obamacare and campaigned
to repeal New Mexico's law providing licenses to undocumented
residents.
CNN covered Libre's May meeting in Albuquerque.
Albuquerque,
New Mexico (CNN) -- Victory for both parties in 2016 could hinge on
mobilizing Latino voters -- and the battle for their support is already
fierce.
The
epicenter is here in the American southwest, where the Libre
Initiative, a conservative group, is spending millions on outreach to
Latino voters, an effort that has
sparked a backlash from Democrats worried about Libre's potential.
In
anticipation of the upcoming election cycle, Libre is undertaking one
of the most ambitious and expensive Latino outreach programs by any
conservative organization
yet. It will have a $14 million operating budget in 2015, according to a
source with knowledge of the group's fiances who requested anonymity to
speak freely. Libre now has field staff in ten states, with plans to
expand further in 2016. Most of Libre's funding
comes from a network of conservative donors organized by billionaire
businessmen Charles and David Koch.
"Their
tactics are welcoming to many Latinos and Hispanics who feel that
politicians talk about them, not to them," says Victor Reyes of
ProgressNowNM, a progressive non-profit
organizing group opposing and frequent critic of the Koch agenda. "But
what they are really doing is deplorable because they lure in voters
with promises to 'educate' them on issues and make their lives better,
but then end up doing a bait and switch by turning
newly engaged Latinos onto candidates who oppose the very policies
these new voters are told they support. It is pandering 101 and
Democrats are as much to blame for taking the Latino vote for granted
for too long."
As
a minority-majority state (46% of the state's population is Hispanic)
with a relatively small population (just over 2 million residents), New
Mexico is proving to be
a perfect lab for Latino and Hispanic voter engagement. A little money
can go a long way here and the Koch brothers have provided Libre with a
lot of it: at least $14 million to start.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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