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Puerto Vallarta News NetworkEditorials | Issues | October 2007 

Names Can Sometimes Hinder Latino Politicians
email this pageprint this pageemail usEunice Moscoso - Cox News Service
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Bill Richardson has an Anglo name but Mexican roots.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is facing a challenge in his presidential bid: convincing voters that he is Hispanic.

Latino candidates with Anglo-sounding last names have a harder time attracting the attention of the growing number of Latino voters, political experts say.

With a rise in mixed marriages, more Latino politicians could be facing the prospect of having to prove that they are Hispanic. The phenomenon has led some politicos to add a Hispanic middle name or last name to their moniker, or ditch an Anglo one.

Before becoming a member of Congress, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat, ran as a Republican for the Anaheim City Council as Loretta Sanchez-Brixey, using her then-married name. After losing that race, she dropped the Brixey name, became a Democrat and won a hotly contested seat in an Orange County district, which is now 65 percent Latino.

Rebecca Klein, a Republican who once headed the Texas Public Utility Commission, added her maiden name to become Rebecca Armendariz Klein when she ran for the U.S. Congress against Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Texas Democrat, a few years ago.

Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat, was known as Tracy Fischer years before he ran for a seat representing Hispanic-heavy San Antonio. And another Texas state lawmaker — Rep. Richard Raymond, a Democrat — recently changed his name to Richard Peña Raymond.

Raymond said that his name change was a personal decision not influenced by political calculation. It was prompted by receiving a law degree late in life and wanting to honor his mother by adding her maiden name on the diploma, he said.

But Raymond also said that if he decided to run for statewide office, having a Hispanic-sounding middle name is “probably not going to be a negative.”

Fischer also said that his name change was a personal decision that happened years before he ran for office. He also said there is nothing wrong with people wanting to highlight their heritage by using a Latino family name, especially at a time when there is a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment in the country.

“It’s important for our young children and leaders to realize that they have a culture and a heritage to be proud of,” he said.

Lionel Sosa, a longtime consultant on Hispanic voter outreach, said that politicians probably will continue to change their names to showcase their Hispanic heritage. But Sosa also said that Latinos want a candidate who is qualified, whom they can trust and identify with, regardless of name.

Sosa served as a consultant and fundraiser in President Bush’s national campaigns but is now supporting Richardson, a Democrat, in part because of Richardson’s Mexican heritage.

A politician’s name has always been a factor in politics.

This month, former White House counselor Dan Bartlett suggested that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s last name was a problem because it did not sound presidential. Huckabee is a former Arkansas governor.

When then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, a Democrat, was considering a White House run in the 1980s and 1990s, analysts discussed the difficulty of electing someone with an Italian last name.

Now, Richardson, who has a Mexican mother and spent his early childhood in Mexico City, is spending hard cash to prove that he is ethnically diverse.

He launched a Hispanic outreach effort, “Mi Familia con Richardson” (“My Family with Richardson”). It challenges Latino families to recruit five other Hispanic families and form a community group to support the campaign.



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