By David Cruz
NJ Today
This is Hispanic Heritage Month and Democrat Barbara Buono points out that Latinos make up one-fifth of New Jersey’s population. She says she’s going to battle for every one of their votes, unveiling a Latino agenda today that pretty much mirrors her overall agenda — focusing on raising the minimum wage and making college tuition affordable for children of the undocumented.
“There are 1.5 million Latinos in the state of New Jersey and all they’re asking for is opportunity,” she said today. “All they’re asking for is a chance, but for far too long this governor has denied them.”
Flanked by a handful of Latino elected officials, Buono criticized Gov. Chris Christie for his policies on everything from vetoing the minimum wage bill to eliminating the earned income tax credit, calling it an assault on the middle class and the working poor. But Christie has made inroads into the Latino community, garnering endorsements from Democrats like Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo and Union City Mayor and Sen. Brian Stack, who represent areas with large Latino voting blocs, prompting questions about how much enthusiasm Latino voters really have for her.
“Those very same leaders that are supposed to be representing the interests of the middle class, the working poor, the Latinos, when they embrace this governor, they’re embracing his policies of exclusion,” said the Democrat, “so I think it’s important that people appreciate that, and that these leaders know that we’ll be holding them accountable, that voters will be holding them accountable.”
Sen. Nellie Pou, a veteran legislator — and one of the state’s most prominent Latino elected officials — said Christie’s inroads into the Latino electorate are not as deep as he would have you believe.
“These are just individual figureheads,” she said. “They’re not being backed by the organizations, so if you have someone who happens to be, that has a title representing that organization, that organization is not fully backing them, so I would say let’s be careful about using names in terms of Latino organizations because that is not what’s happening.”
Still, with Christie once again given an opportunity to show that he is in command in a crisis, Buono finds herself on the outside, trying to poke holes in the campaign of a man whose personality is so large it leaves little room for criticism, accurate or not.
This event was held in the middle of a busy intersection and Buono struggled to be heard throughout, but she admonished the skeptics to remember that there’s still just about a month-and-half to go before election day and plenty of time to get her message out.