Marco Rubio Got Tough but State Wins on Super Tuesday Must Follow
HOUSTON - The tough swings that Marco Rubio took at Donald Trump put him in better position for Super Tuesday, but they may not be enough for him to displace the frontrunner just yet.
Several Hispanic Republicans who have been turned off by the immigration rhetoric and positions of Trump and Ted Cruz have backed Rubio as the best chance of a GOP candidate to capture enough of the Latino vote to win in November, despite his own tough views on immigration.
Going into the CNN/Telemundo debate Thursday night, Cruz and Rubio were under pressure to more aggressively take on Trump or watch him walk away with the nomination on Super Tuesday.
"There are no silver or bronze medals in the race for the U.S. presidency," said Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and CNN political analyst. "He (Rubio) needs to get out of this space of being bogged down, of fighting Ted Cruz for number two. He needs to fight for number one. He finally took the gloves off and began doing it."
The debate got nasty early with immigration as the opening topic for the Telemundo/CNN debate Thursday night.
The candidates soon were talking over each other and trading barbs as they tried to one up each other on whose proposals were toughest on people who arrive or stay in the country illegally.
Rubio, in trying to show that immigration enforcement was new to Donald Trump, brought up Trump hiring immigrants who were not here legally.
"You are the only one on this stage who's been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally," Rubio said.
Trump retorted that he was the only one on stage that hired people at all.
But Rubio did not give in and urged viewers a couple of times to "Google it: Trump, Polish workers."
Several Latino conservatives in Texas, many who previously supported Jeb Bush, switched their support to Rubio, hoping to give him a boost. They find his immigration proposals, which are built around a plan to first secure the border and deal with the 11 million people here without legal permission much later.
"Trump's rhetoric needs to be toned down now. A general election with that tone, there is no way he can win and he would not get my vote," said Cesar Martinez, a political consultant and founder of Mas Consulting in San Antonio.
"We need to look to the future of what this country needs," Martinez said. "It's 50 percent of the population growth."
Rubio has suffered with the far right Republican base because he was a member of the Gang of Eight, eight senators who crafted a bipartisan immigration reform bill that included a path to citizenship for and was approved by the Senate in 2013. But after suffering political blowback, Rubio disowned the legislation, urged the House not to take up the bill and not to negotiate on the Senate's comprehensive immigration bill.
He has pledged to repeal every "unconstitutional" executive order or action taken by President Barack Obama, which would include the action Obama took to defer deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants who arrived in the country as young children and have grown up in the U.S., also known as Dreamers.
Rubio explained that he would not immediately end the executive action program known as DACA that allows immigrants allowed to stay in the country and work. But their protection from deportation and permission to work would be allowed to run out and would not be renewed and new applicants for the program would not be accepted.
Conservative Latinos who back Rubio as the most rational on immigration have been willing to accept that plan in hope that Rubio would broker an immigration solution before hundreds of thousands of young, largely Latino immigrants are thrown back into limbo and with the daily threat of deportation and being unable to work.
Interview with César Martínez, President of MAS Consulting Group, in "El Molinillo
You can access the full interview here
In his interview, Cesar Martinez recalls from the first elections in early 2000 when the Hispanic vote began to be worked on directly as a strategic issue to the importance that this minority (increasingly majority) has today: "Latinos no longer only have the responsibility to register and vote, now there is the possibility that they will be representatives and be voted into political office.
Given the presence of politicians of Hispanic descent in positions of responsibility, César believes that this is a trend that will increase: "By 2016 I dare say that there will be at least one Hispanic in the formula, either as president or vice president in one of the two parties.
The interview also discusses the role of the media and the Internet in American political campaigns over the past decade. Given the presence and power of the internet to get votes, Cesar Martinez believes that "depending on who your voter is, depending on who we are targeting we should work more on the web or not". However, he believes that "television continues to be the mass medium" although "the Internet achieves an enormous penetration and segmentation that cannot be wasted".
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of MAS Consulting in Spain, César Martínez remembers the beginnings in 2003 when he wanted to form, together with Daniel Ureña, "something that would bring together different countries to offer consulting and global training services; something that, fortunately, has been a success". "Without a doubt, the way of working in each country is different, but the consultant must adapt to it," said Martínez.
"I see a Latino president in the United States in the near future"
Interview with César Martínez, President of MAS Consulting Group.
When he began studying film in Los Angeles, César Martínez knew that advertising and the world of production were part of his future, but the possibility of becoming one of the leading international political consultants never crossed his mind. Few consultants of Latino origin have in their curriculum the fact that they have participated in the last four U.S. presidential campaigns: Bush-Cheney 2000 and 2004, McCain-Pallin 2008 and Romney-Ryan 2012, in addition to having advised candidates from all over Latin America and Spain for the last 20 years, being a regular guest at classes and seminars at universities around the world and having received numerous international awards for their work in the world of advertising and political consulting.
By Inés Royo
President of MAS Consulting Group, a firm that this year celebrates its 10 years of work in Spain, César Martínez looks with optimism to the future of the profession and sees in the Hispanics living in the United States a key group in politics to which he will continue to dedicate his efforts during the campaign and from which many candidates will emerge for the present and for the future.
Four campaigns, three candidates, one party. What has changed since the first time you participated in a U.S. presidential campaign in 2000?
A lot of things. I remember that when we started working in 1999 with then-Governor Bush, it was not usual to carry out strategies to seek out the Latino vote. There were already some efforts to win over Hispanic audiences in the world of marketing and communication, but not in the political arena. When Lionel Sosa (from whom I continue to learn every day) and I started working, we were fortunate that the great effort we made in that campaign was not only in the advertising part, but it allowed us to do some "novel" things at that time, such as offering news to those media outlets that could not attend the calls or having a Hispanic spokesperson for the media that broadcast in Spanish. There were many "firsts" and innovative issues in that campaign from the communication point of view. Today those "firsts" are a very important, even decisive, part of the strategy for some candidates like President Obama.
Can it be said then that it was the Republican Party that was the driving force in working with the Latino vote?
Among colleagues we talked about how what was done with Bush 13 years ago is now being applied by Obama: taking seriously the now majority minority. The Latino electorate today is too important and representative to ignore. For example, the five most important states, or at least the ones most decisive in the presidential elections, are where most Latinos reside and have the right to vote. It is a very large segment of voters, which has changed a lot and will continue to change a lot more in the coming years, and thus will continue to increase its political power in the elections.
Estimates predict that by 2025, 25% of the U.S. population will be Hispanic. What will this mean for the country from a sociodemographic and cultural point of view?
As with all estimates, these data must be taken with caution, but the growth of the Latino population is a reality. Of the population growth recorded in recent years, 50% is Latino and has been spread across almost all states, and in some, such as North Carolina, it is a growth of 160%. From a cultural and sociodemographic point of view, I believe that the Latino population is becoming a new injection of energy for the United States. It is important to remember that the United States is a country of immigrants and has always been nourished by them. With the new generations, it reinvents itself, brings out the best in each culture and together they manage to move the country forward. A clear example is the economic issue, Latinos are a group of 50 million people and therefore consumers. Latinos are increasingly influential in the economic, social and cultural spheres.
Can we still talk about the American dream for immigrants coming to the United States?
The United States remains that great country of opportunity, no matter what the economy is like, even if it is not in its prime now. It will always be that great place that brings together people from all over the world in search of a second chance, the American dream, which of course still exists.
And what effect is this growth in the Latino population going to have on the way politics and election campaigns are conducted?
With these numbers, it is no longer just the responsibility of Latinos to register and go to the polls. Now they must also be representatives and be voted on. There are already many Latinos in political positions at all levels: Villarraigosa in Los Angeles, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, Brian Sandoval, Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court. They are no longer just voters, but are potentially elected. About 50,000 young U.S.-born Latinos come of age every month and politics must include them in the system and adapt to it. Not just as idealistic thinking, but as a key part of the campaign.
Are you betting on a first Hispanic president in the White House in the next few years?
Yes, that's a fact, and it can come from both parties. By 2016, I dare say there will be at least one Hispanic in the formula, either as president or vice president. In fact, personally I think it would have been a good idea if Marco Rubio had accompanied Romney in 2012. It is more than likely that with Rubio, he would have won Florida and we would have moved the needle more in the Hispanic. Marco Rubio in Tampa moved everyone emotionally by telling over and over again his personal story of how his father worked as a waiter to pay for their education. Rubio would have brought to the Romney-Rubio formula a more passionate, emotional and interesting part. There are other possibilities like Susana Martinez or Brian Sandoval. Other names, like Ted Cruz, might be too conservative. I see that in 2016 there will be someone Hispanic on the ballot and I see in the near future a Latino president in the United States.
What is the best slogan or piece for you aimed at Latinos in recent campaigns?
There are some very good ones but I would stick with one that talked about "a new day" in the 2000 campaign. A new day where the Republican Party's relationship with Latinos was reinvented. Then there have been other more "sound" ones. For example, in 2008 we worked the "Estamos Unidos" with McCain and in 2012 Obama's people recycled it. We talked to them directly to see what had happened because they were using in the campaign something that had been criticized four years before us. I suppose that would be the best slogan since it has been used twice by both major parties. It didn't help us to win, but it did for them.
The power of campaign videos
One of the areas you've worked with the Republican candidates the most is the production of political spots. According to the trends of the last few years, are we facing the end of the reign of television in favor of the Internet?
It's an interesting situation. Television remains the mass medium but the Internet achieves enormous penetration and segmentation. In the face of this dilemma, what do you do? I think the ideal situation is to create a video for the Internet, move it and have it echoed by traditional media. If what you handle in social networks comes to move to the general media is ground up gold and if it stays only in the networks you run the risk of losing a certain group that can be very valuable. A spot only in networks must be for a very specific segment of the electorate. Depending on who your voter is, depending on who we are targeting we should work more on the network or not. For example, if we target the young voter, logically the Internet is key. But if the voter is older, especially in the primary, television will still be the great medium to reach them.
Do you remember your first political video?
I remember one of the first video messages I had to make during the 2004 campaign in the US and another one in 2005 in Mexico. At that time they were things that the media and the people did not yet understand, and press conferences had to be held to present and explain them. The video from the United States was with Senator Kerry related to the Latino world. In the video from Mexico we mentioned that Andrés López Obrador was someone "not good" for the 2006 candidacy; seven years have passed but he continues to move in networks because he was very impressive.
The long awaited Immigration Law in the United States
The immigration law has managed to bring the two parties together and has provoked a great deal of debate in the cameras. Could it be the key to President Obama making history?
I think the more Obama is involved in this bill, the further he is from making it happen. Because the key to making it happen will be to convince some of the Republicans who have already shown their opposition in his amendments, some of them lethal as those related to the border with Mexico and its security. The Gang of Eight (a group of four Democrats and four Republicans who have worked on the drafting and management of the bill on Capitol Hill) has done very well because it has shown that it is bipartisan on an issue as important as immigration. If it finally passes, Obama will hang himself a medal because it has been his during his administration but voters also do not forget that he promised in 2008 and it did not happen, then he promised again and it is taking longer than expected. It is such an important reform that everyone wants to earn it and put the stamp of having participated in it.
The future of the profession in Spain
In addition to the United States, this year MAS Consulting celebrates 10 years of work in Spain. After this time, what are the main differences between political consulting in Spain and other countries?
When Daniel Ureña and I sat down in 2003 and opened MAS Consulting globally, we were looking to create something that would bring together different countries to offer consulting services and also focus on training. Luckily, postgraduate courses are very successful and campaigns, even though they work differently, have also been a great experience. One of the main differences with Spain is the duration of the campaigns. Having two weeks to ask for the vote would be unthinkable in other countries. In consulting, 15 days is nothing; hence many Spanish consultants have decided to emigrate. However, it becomes a very interesting challenge in which you can do many things and innovate.
Does the difference in systems also influence the way we work?
No doubt about it. In addition to the short duration, which gives an essential role to the pre-campaign, the system of closed lists, limited media spaces, limited financing, the weight of the parties Each country has its own rules and the consultant must adapt to them. Each country contributes a grain of sand to the great mountain that is democracy, and ideally, it would be possible to create a system with the best of each. Churchill used to say that democracy is the worst system except for all the others.
10th International Seminar on Political Communication
The 10th International Seminar on Political Communication, organised by MAS Consulting Group and The George Washington University, will take place at ICADE (Madrid) on 14th December. Entitled "Keys to the future of communication for leaders, governments and parties", the programme features leading international political communication experts and renowned journalists to study how to bring citizens and politicians closer together. Speakers include Jim Margolis, President and Founder of GMMB, the lead advertising agency for Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaign, and César Martínez, Romney-Ryan 2012 campaign advisor. I have the pleasure of participating in the round table discussion entitled And after the Obama era, where is the future of political communication headed? With Andoni Aldeñoa and Daniel Ureña. Other topics to be discussed include: Communication in times of political crisis: keys to current political leadership; Lessons from Barack Obama's campaign; Lessons from Mitt Romney's campaign; and Journalists and politicians: keys to a good relationship. More information and registration. You can follow the event on Twitter through @masconsulting with the hashtag #10SeminarioGWU
MAS Consulting Group to offer political consulting in Texas.
MAS Consulting Group's political trio, Cesar Martinez, Karla Fernandez Parker and Nelda Carrizales announce they are geared-up to provide consulting services to all candidates seeking to attract the key Latino vote and Latinos running for office in Texas.
"It's our intention to bring successful campaign outcomes to Texas candidates, so we'd like to offer our strategic political communications expertise based on our prior learnings having worked on campaigns locally, statewide, nationally and internationally," says Cesar Martinez, President of MAS Consulting Group. "Our experience comes from working with campaigns ranging from George W. Bush, John McCain all the way to local judges. This year in Texas, and nationwide, if you want to win, I would say the new motto is: It's the economy and the Latino voter.
"My marketing background and campaign experience helps give campaigns a more main street approach," says Nelda Carrizales. "Latinos are savvy about their politics, a few words in Spanish will not do the job any more. We help candidates connect to issues that are important to Latinos.
More than 150 experts will analyze new trends in Political Communication this Friday at ICADE
More than 150 experts will participate in the tenth International Seminar on Political Communication 'Keys to the future of communication for leaders, governments and parties', to be held this Friday at Comillas Pontifical University (ICADE), as reported by the organisation in a press release.
The event, which is organized by MAS Consulting Group and The George Washinton University, brings together international and national experts who will analyze the situation and future perspectives of political communication, the new forms of communication between citizens and politicians and the new channels, tools and languages that have been consolidated in the last decade.
The founder of GMMB, the advertising agency for Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 campaign, Jim Margolis; the Republican Party's advisor on all its campaigns from 2000 to Mitt Romney's, Cesar Martinez; and The George Washington University professor and Democratic Party consultant Peter Fenn; are the three international speakers who will participate in the event.
Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí, communications consultant, Andoni Aldekoa, managing director of the Bilbao City Council and Daniel Ureña, managing partner of MAS Consulting Group, will also speak at one of the scheduled round tables. The three national consultants will analyse the course of political communication after the Obama era.
This Seminar is the tenth anniversary of the collaboration agreement between The George Washington University and MAS Consulting Group. Throughout these years, more than 900 municipal, regional and national leaders and consultants have been trained in some of the programs organized by both entities in Spain.
San Antonio consulting group wins award for Hispanic Republican ad
For the second straight year, San Antonio-based MAS Consulting Group has received a Pollie Award from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC).
The award this year recognized work the company did on behalf of Hispanic Republicans of Texas, a political action group formed by George P. Bush, George Antuna Jr. and Juan Hernandez. George P. Bush, whose mother is Hispanic, is the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the nephew of former President George W. Bush.
"The Pollies are the Oscars of political communications, so we're very excited to have received the award and the recognition from the AAPC for the body of work we've produced," says Cesar Martinez, president and CEO of MAS Consulting Group.
MAS Consulting's goal with the spot was to garner attention for its client, HRT, and to encourage and support Hispanic Republicans to run for political offices at all levels.
"We congratulate our agency, MAS Consulting Group, for great creative work, which helped launch our organization and continues to help move our PAC forward," says Trey Newton, director of Hispanic Republicans of Texas.
The Pollie Awards were presented on March 11 in Washington, D.C. The AAPC was founded in 1969 as a multi-partisan, nonprofit organization for political professionals. Each year the organization recognizes the best of the best in the business in over 600 political campaign and public affairs categories.
MAS Consulting Group is a communications consulting firm with an active presence in the U.S., Mexico and Spain.
Our Firm's president, featured in ABC Spain and Europa Press
Cesar Martinez, our firm's leader, is quoted once more in Madrid's Europa press, as well as major
Spanish Newspaper ABC. In these interviews, Cesar discusses the importance of the immigrant vote in the upcoming local and statewide Spanish Elections in 2011. Europa press quotes Cesar:
"According to Martinez, political election expert, the parties that make a great effort to communicate with the immigrant voter from the very start of 2011, will be able to reap the benefits for sure. However, those that don't make this effort, run the risk of losing the vote of an entire generation.
XII ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN STRATEGY SEMINAR
The George Washington University (GWU) is pleased to present the 12th Election Campaign Strategy Seminar entitled "Keys to a Successful Campaign. Principles and Tools for Success".
The social and cultural diversity of our continent is manifested, among other things, in the ways and forms in which electoral processes and politics are developed in Latin America. Beyond the political and socio-economic particularities of each country, all successful electoral campaigns have a number of elements in common. In this seminar we will deal with just that: the keys to a successful campaign.
We will discuss, based on successful experiences throughout the region, how to establish an efficient and disciplined organization, how to raise funds adequately and according to the needs of a campaign, how to create a viable and realistic plan and strategy, how to develop a communications strategy according to the demands of the electorate, how to adapt to new trends and technologies, and finally, how to ensure that all these principles are effectively applied to achieve success.
The lectures will be given at our University Campus in Washington, DC from March 14-18, 2011.
Topics covered: Surveys and Research, Political Advertising and Marketing, Campaign Organization and Planning, Message Development, Targeting, Direct Contact, Campaign Management and Political Leadership, Low Budget Media Production, Volunteer Recruitment and Organizing, Grassroots Mobilization, Coalition Building, New Technologies, Election Strategy and more
Cases to analyze: Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia, Enrique Peña Nieto in the state of Mexico, Chris Christie in New Jersey, Marco Rubio in Florida and other Republican candidates in 2010, Obama in 2008, Sebastián Piñera in Chile and more.
The George Washington University is considered "the most prestigious university in the United States for political professionals" ("The hottest university in the nation for 'political junkies'", Newsweek Magazine 2005) and "the elite in political strategy learning" ("The West Point of the Political Wars", New York Times).
Our school, The Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM), as part of GWU, has joined forces with prestigious organizations worldwide and with consultants who are developing innovative projects, the same ones that will accompany us in this event.
A Mexican in the "gringo" election campaigns
CÉSAR MARTÍNEZ GOMÁRIZ DIRECTOR OF PUBLICITY FOR THE BUSH AND MCCAIN CAMPAIGNS
"Politics should not be left in the hands of politicians alone".
Do you like politics?
I don't belong to any party, but I like it. I feel it is important to participate. Politics should not be left to politicians alone, but people have to get involved. In the United States, you even vote for your school board members.
However, participation in elections is low, at least in Spain. Are citizens fed up with politicians?
It's democratic boredom. I suppose in Spain's first elections the turnout was massive. You have to remind people that it's very important that they vote. If you don't vote for someone, someone else is going to decide for you. I take my children with me when I go to vote. In the last U.S. election, my company worked for Senator McCain, but my children were more for Obama. In my house there were two signs, Obama and McCain. If people don't participate, democracy doesn't grow. And democracy is like health: if you don't take care of it, it starts to go.
These are projects that take months. The first thing is to research and determine the type of person you want to get to vote: how old they are, what their media consumption habits are, what language they use, and so on. Doesn't it seem impossible to connect an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, English-speaking candidate with a Latino, Catholic, Spanish-speaking audience? Well, if you find similar values, it is possible.
He was a very disciplined candidate on message and connected well with the electorate. The 2000 election was very complicated because in the end it ended up being decided by the Supreme Court. The difference between Bush and his rivals was that he identified more with the ordinary citizen. In 2004, while Bush was seen working on his ranch, Senator John Kerry was more distant.
However, if there is currently a politician with a bad image or a bad memory, it is George Bush...
Internationally, perhaps, but not so much in the United States. Otherwise, he would not have been re-elected in 2004, when 3 million more people voted for him than his rival. Bush's image is not the most popular on the planet, but in the campaign it worked very well.
He managed to connect. The most important thing is to connect, to communicate and, possibly, to convince. You say vote for me, but if there's no connection, it's impossible to win. Kerry had no ability to connect. Obama had an excellent ability. McCain had it, but the positioning he was given as if he were Bush III had an influence.
Gigantic. But Obama came into office representing hope and, a year later, the situation is complex. He achieved great chemistry with the people and the defeat he just had in Massachusetts is the best thing that could have happened to him. It's a warning that he has to reconnect with the people. The voter is in charge.
I wouldn't call it guilt. We are communicators, not politicians. We don't have to agree completely with what the candidate thinks because, at the end of the day, what we are looking for is to communicate with the target audience. A candidate has four audiences before him: the base; the undecided; the indifferent, who are not interested in voting; and those who are against. We, the media consultants, are not hired to win our vote, but to win the vote of thousands of people. The one who votes is the one who knows and the one who rules, period.
How powerful is the Latino vote in the United States?
Latinos make up 15% of the population. We are the largest minority and, in some places, the majority. In Texas and California, for example, one out of every three citizens is Latino. In North Carolina, the Latino population growth has been 600%. What is happening to Latinos in the United States is what is going to happen to immigrants in Spain. It is no longer easy to move base voters, so the new voter, the first-time voter, is the one who may be easiest to persuade. The immigrant vote is going to be very important in Spain and, if a candidate is able to talk to them as Spaniards, as people who help the country to grow, he or she can be carried to victory.
On the other hand, all parties aspire to win the youth vote.
The vote of young people is the most difficult to motivate, the indifferent vote. They are not interested in politics and are much more interested in football or friends. But there are people who bet on youth and it works for them, as Obama did, who has to go back to that because now he is disconnected from youth.