Does Candidate Diversity Matter In Elections?

Unless we are including the Portuguese community, when we are talking ‘Hispanics’ around Bridgeport we are talking the Puerto Rican community. Let’s not zoom each other with finery.

That voter is picky and independent. It does not seem to machine well, at least in Bridgeport, compared to earlier ethnic groups in the city. It shares one characteristic common in decades past with working-class people in town: the voter is more concerned with other things besides civic affairs. There has been engagement when a local special interest has been raised and effectively presented.

The average voter Puerto Rican will not automatically come out for a stiff just because they are from their community. Manipulated voters will turn out, as they do and have done in other communities. Say hello to the reigning queen of absentee ballots. (We should give a hat tip to Mitch Robles for figuring out a way to push his neighborhood, if not outright machine it.)

Previous conflicts between what could be described as the white community and the black community leave the Puerto Rican community disinterested unless a white politician or a black politician can find a way to flip them. Usually they split, or don’t vote.

Ethnic politics counts in this community, like any other. It has always counted, but it is not the only factor. They don’t cotton to the white-black crap in American politics. Unless it serves a self-interest.

Percentage of voters–in all communities–is down from years ago because of efforts to register voters. Raw numbers of voters have not dropped that much. Remove for a moment the series of really hot primaries from 1979-86. Look at before and after. Things went back to “normal.” During the “war,” the personalities were different; the issues extreme. The Puerto Rican community, as an ethnic bloc, provided a frequent tipping point in those battles. It was not their war. They got to play both sides. For their advantage. Which they did.

Obviously, the influence of the Puerto Rican community in Bridgeport politics has increased since that time by numbers of elected officials alone. But it appears that is not because voter turnout has increased. Instead, their numbers have reached a point in certain precincts where it is their neighborhood. They call the shots. And they elect and unelect representatives in a manner that confuses Anglos (see East Bridgeport). Four years ago in a hullabaloo–from OIB and possibly around town–over a city council primary on the East Side, there were more people hanging out in Washington Square Park on Primary Day than turned out to vote. The city would have been better served setting up a polling booth in the bandshell than at Marin. That strikes me as reasonable to describe the normal political interest of Bridgeport’s Puerto Rican community. That was a squawk among their own. Yawn.

That stated, Andres Ayala did get something of a push from his own community running for state senator in his primary last year. He had a credible political record, but no sizzle. The response was OK but not overwhelming. Perhaps that will come. But his own community couldn’t close the deal without outside help. Perhaps it is better that way. It forces people to work together.

Now, you would think the education issue would strike a chord. The percentage of students in the school system suggest an interest. It is a reasonable assumption. It is NOT reasonable based on PAST fact. For that to change, some ONE–or an organized group–the community respects will have to mobilize that vote.

Good luck.