GOP debate targets Spanish speakers

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Republican presidential candidates sought to embrace Hispanics in a Spanish language debate Sunday, striving to mark common ground with a growing voter bloc while softening the anti-illegal immigration rhetoric that has marked their past encounters.

Only Sen. John McCain warned that harsh immigration views voiced by some Republicans have driven Hispanics away from the party. The Arizona senator has stood apart from most of his Republican rivals because he supported changing immigration laws and creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

Univision, the Spanish language television network, and the University of Miami hosted the debate. Questions were posed in Spanish by Univision anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas and simultaneously translated into English for the candidates. Their responses were then simultaneously translated into Spanish for broadcast.

Republicans have had trouble courting Hispanics, who have become an increasingly significant source of votes. A poll this week by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center found Hispanic registered voters favor Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 57 percent to 23 percent, a wider gap than in July 2006.

Several candidates took pains to praise Hispanics on Sunday.

“Hispanic-Americans have already reached great heights in America. I saw that in my city. They pushed us to be better,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. “They’re coming here to be Americans and they’re making us better by being here in America.”

Added former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: “This is the land of the brave and the home of the free, and Hispanics are brave and they are free, as are all the people of this great nation.”

Still, former Sen. Fred Thompson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Giuliani and Romney made it clear they would not favor a special path toward citizenship for the estimated 12 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally.