LatinaLista — Not sure what’s less surprising in the latest impreMedia-Latino Decisions poll, that more Latinos would likely vote for Obama or that a majority say that it would make no difference to their vote if Cuban-American Marco Rubio was the Republican VP nominee.
Literally, Rubio in the race would make no difference according to the poll:
Marco Rubio, a Cuban American Republican Senator from Florida, has been rumored to be on the list of likely nominees for Vice-President. If Senator Rubio were nominated by the Republicans for Vice-President, what effect if any would it have on your likelihood of voting Republican in next year’s presidential election? Would it would make you more likely or less likely to vote Republican, or have no effect on your vote?
Much more likely to vote Republican 13%
Somewhat more likely Republican 11%
Somewhat less likely Republican 11%
Much less likely to vote Republican 10%
Have no effect 46%
Don’t know 7%
Refused 2%
The poll assumed Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee and so questions about religious beliefs and the Mormon religion dominated the poll.
I wonder what the response would have been had a question been asked how likely would Latinos vote for a Gingrich/Rubio ticket vs. an Obama/Biden team? Since Gingrich is the only one of the nominees to publicly defy Tea Party rhetoric against undocumented immigrants and Rubio, for some reason, is softening his stance on illegal immigration, the combination could make for a hard choice among Latino voters.
As it stands, not surprisingly, just shy of 50 percent of Latinos say they will vote for Obama. Yet, Gingrich wasn’t even mentioned in the poll and as long as the Obama administration allows the deportation of undocumented students and people who, by Homeland Security’s definition, are not security threats to the country, Latinos may make a predictable choice at the polls — leaving both parties surprised.
