Here, too, the emphasis is on the message to Hispanic families and lots of pictures of the candidate with Hispanic voters. For the first time, presidential candidates have invested in broadcast commercials in Spanish as well. Gore's does the entire narration of his 30-second television spot. Bush speaks in Spanish directly to the camera only at the end of his commercial. According to Jano Cabrera of the Gore campaign, major polling in California this year shows that health care has risen to the top of the priority list with many Hispanics.
Education comes in second.
Bush has rejected that policy and in Texas he won nearly 50 percent of the Hispanic vote in his re-election campaign for governor. The Hispanic vote is important this year because of geography as well as numbers. Some Hispanics seem amused by the lengths to which the two contenders are going, especially by speaking in Spanish. Rafael Ortega, a Democrat running for Congress in Minnesota, says Bush's Spanish is crisp, and you can get a sense of what he's saying. Sonya Chawla contributed to this report.