ANALYSIS/OPINION:
The Fat Lady is in final dress rehearsal, and what a multiethnic event it is.
There’s Joe Biden, looking delirious at an event with the ultraglam Eva Longoria, and Rand Paul in tete-a-tete with blacks. And my fave is Rick Weiland, a Tom Daschle Democrat, who has been trying to make himself appear as Pow-Wow the Indian Boy as he tries to drum up votes. Mr. Weiland’s smoke signals are just that offensive.
No doubt that in the waning days of the midterm election cycle, candidates are hard-pressed for votes from blacks, Native Americans and Hispanics.
First up, the Hispanic vote, which Democrats need to cross the gubernatorial and Senate finish lines on Tuesday, and which led Mr. Biden to Las Vegas on Saturday for the Latino Victory Project and Political Action Committee rally. Cofounded by Miss Longoria and businessman and philanthropist Henry Munoz III, the event left Mr. Biden prostrated. “We’ve got three days,” said Mr. Biden. “If we vote, we win. If we don’t, we lose.”
He also was giddy and exceedingly embarrassing, so much so until I cannot imagine how his wife, Jill, would react if her eyes ran across Mr. Biden’s smiling eyes as he listened to Miss Longoria speak. In the photo, the vice president’s wide grin looks like it’s more than Nevada’s 16 percent Latino vote on his mind. Unless, of course, he’s a natural flasher whenever he’s in such glam company in Vegas — a flasher of 71-year-old pearly whites, that is.
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A record number for Hispanics
In another key state, Colorado, 14 percent of the registered electorate is Hispanic. And, what’s more, is that 32 Hispanic candidates — a record number, by the way, could be elected to the U.S. House, which likely will remain Republican controlled.
His Native American BFF
Latino voters alone cannot push the Dems this time around. The jackasses are hankering to pull in the American Indian voters, too, which explains why Mr. Weiland has been trying to make them his new BFF — for a minimum of six years.
Six years is how long the progressive Mr. Weiland would hold office if the Indian vote helped send him to Washington to help the Democratic Party hold onto majority control with a South Dakota victory.
A couple of things are on his side:
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⦁ Turnout could be boosted by a voter initiative on changing the name of Shannon County, South Dakota, home of much of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, to Oglala Lakota County, the latter being the name of the tribe that has …
⦁ … No-questions-asked early voting locations in a handful of counties that contain Indian reservations.
That Native American turnout could rise from the usual 40 percent to 45 percent to potentially 70 percent to 90 percent was not lost on the Democrats like Mr. Weiland, who is in a three-way race with Mike Rounds, the Republican nominee and former governor, and Larry Pressler, the former Republican and former senator.
D.C. voters may or may not remember Mr. Pressler, but by the time the Fat Lady takes the stage late Tuesday night, who, at the time a lobbyist, considered a run to replace then-Mayor Marion Barry in 1998 and famously said: “I have a lot of African-American friends.”
Well, it’s 16 years later and Mr. Pressler isn’t exactly pressing the flesh with blacks, but he and other midterm candidates are hoping that blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans do appear with the Fat Lady by the time she takes the stage late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning — or that’s at least that’s the theme they’ve been peddling.
Keeping up with Rand
It’s interesting watching Rand Paul chatting up blacks.
The Kentucky Republican, who espouses libertarianism and is no scaredy or scary cat, has been hopscotching the nation to meet with black stakeholders. He says it’s to make sure his ears are always wide open, which makes sense some blacks think the GOP is a plague.
This past weekend Mr. Paul was in Detroit, the city that’s broke as a haunt and where blacks are feeling the burden.
There’s little doubt that the chat-me-up tours could be — or in fact are — sounding boards for the next Senate session, which could be Republican controlled, or his potential 2016 White House run.
Either way it’s a smart move for black voters: They know where Mr. Paul stands and Mr. Paul knows where they stand.
Please vote, if you have not already.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.
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