Immigration: the 'Sleeping Giant' Sleeps no More

This is from America's Voice ...

Washington, DC - The power of the Latino vote is one of the key storylines to emerge from the 2008 elections. Latino and immigrant voters played a decisive role yesterday by delivering four key battleground states to Senator Barack Obama, lifting many members of the House and Senate to victory, and defeating anti-immigrant legislators.

While Latinos care about many of the major issues facing our country today, the issue of immigration both drove them to the polls and helped push this voting bloc to support Democratic candidates The relatively low level of support for John McCain among Latinos, closer to Bob Dole in 1996 than George W. Bush in 2004, is largely attributable to the fact that the Republican brand image is tarnished among Latinos - even for a past leader on immigration issues such as Senator McCain.

Below are some key data-points about the Latino vote in the 2008 election: