PrintJune 9, 2007
Hillary, the Hispanic vote and Univision
Ed Lasky and I have been worrying about the close ties between Hillary Clinton and Haim Saban, a major investor in dominant Spanish language broadcaster Univision. Hillary. Clinton appears to be making a move to capture a large share of the Hispanic vote in the primaries, in effect conceding that most black primary voters may favor Obama no matter what she does.
The fact that Univision is doing its utmost to register Hispanic voters no doubt will on balance help Democrats over Republicans in the general election, though the GOP has a shot at its own share of the new voters. But there's no sort of improper influence in that. Univision has every reason of its own to want to empower its viewers.
Blogger Clemenseando, who covers Hispanic media, had an interesting debate with us over the meaning of Univision, the dominant television network for Spanish speakers in America, registering voters. I would readily concede that Clemenseando has a much deeper knowledge base on the network than I do, so I took his points seriously.
Now he reports that Hillary has revealed she will skip the scheduled Univision primary debate among Democrats. If nothing else, Senator Clinton's decision to bail on this debate splashes cold water on the theory that Haim Saban will use the Spanish-language network to the advantage of the Senator from New York. There may be other reasons for the cancellation, and Saban may still try to do what he can to help his friend. But it does appear that there is no grand strategy. Or if there is one, it is subtle beyond any understanding, which in practical terms is the same thing.
It is a good thing if our fears turn out to be unwarranted.
