The caravan was two hours late in arriving at the scruffy scrap of asphalt and trees at the corner of 157th Street and Broadway in Washington Heights, but once the music started nobody seemed to mind. Surrounded by joyous supporters waving Al Gore placards, Democratic District Leader Maria Luna and Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat danced on the back of a flatbed truck trimmed with Hillary Clinton posters while a six-piece Dominican bachata band smacked out bright arpeggios and percussive polyrhythms. Democratic Party volunteers handed out Gore and Clinton fliers to curious onlookers stopped on the sidewalk while other supporters shook out American and Dominican flags. It was politics Latin style. Luna said that wouldn't be enough to turn out voters in this working-class neighborhood.
Most people have two jobs.
They come home from work, and then they have to cook and take care of the kids. This way they see us. And she should know. In New York City's most heavily Dominican district, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 11 to 1, the trick for leaders like Maria Luna isn't getting people to vote Democratic. The trick is simply getting people to vote.