MIAMI – If a political candidate, Democrat or Republican, comes through the Miami area, he or she must follow the obligatory routine: He or she must say he or she wants to see a Cuba libre, denounce the Castro regime as a ruthless dictatorship and have a cafecito in one of the select Cuban establishments in the area. In a one-week period, all three presidential hopefuls took that route.

The presumptive Republican candidate, John McCain, was here May 20, a day on which Cuban exiles celebrate their independence from the Spanish monarchy in 1902. McCain took the opportunity to spell out what would be his Cuba policy, should he make it to the White House.

He said he would maintain the embargo against Cuba, support dissidents on the island and continue to fund TV and Radio Marti – not much different from what the U.S.’s Cuba policy has been in recent years. So it seems that what he really came here to do was draw a distinction between himself and Sen. Barack Obama when it comes to dealing with the enemy.

“Carter went over and kissed Brezhnev, remember?” McCain said to a mostly Cuban-American audience in a town hall meeting setting. “So it’s dangerous; it’s dangerous to American national security if you sit down and give respect and prestige to leaders of countries that are bent on your destruction or the destruction of other countries. I won’t do it, my friends.”

McCain was referring to Obama’s comments last year during a debate in which he said he would meet with the leaders of countries like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. As was expected, McCain’s remarks brought down the house.

Shortly after his speech, I had an opportunity to sit down with the Republican senator for a one-on-one interview. “Sen. Obama wants to sit unconditionally with Castro, and I think that’s naive and it’s wrong, and it will harm the progress of democracy and freedom in Cuba,” he said to me.

Although it’s vital for presidential hopefuls to express disdain for the Cuban dictatorship in this part of the country, they now need to be aware that shifting demographics are also changing the political landscape in the state. For the first time in Florida, more Latinos are registered as Democrats than as Republicans. Florida was the only state where Republicans outnumbered Democrats among Latinos, but with the influx of immigrants from other Latin American countries and the more moderate views of a younger generation of Cubans, Cuba is no longer the only issue to address.

I asked McCain what his strategy would be in reaching out to Latino voters in a diverse Hispanic community. “Well, whether it be relations with Mexico or countries in Central America that I know very well, like Colombia, I’ll draw differences. For example, Sen. Obama opposes the Colombia Free Trade Agreement; I strongly support it,” he responded. “There’s a wide range of issues concerning Latin America, including the farm bill, which hurts countries in our hemisphere and their ability to export their products into our country, and so there are many differences.”

New registration data provided by the state shows that Democratic registration among Latinos in Florida increased 18 percent, while Republicans grew by only 2 percent. Hispanic voters who decided to remain independent grew by 14 percent. Hispanics make up 15 percent of the electorate in this state, which has played a major role in the past two presidential elections, and should it be a tight race again this year, they could very well be the decisive factor.

While Republicans will have to expand their discourse in trying to attract Latino voters in Florida, Democrats cannot rest on their laurels. Cuba might not be the only issue that needs to be addressed here, but by no means can the sensitivities of Cuban-American voters be ignored. Now more than ever, Hispanics know the value of their vote and will be keeping a close watch on both parties before giving it away.