Democrat hopes Hispanic vote puts him over the top in Arizona governor's race

Tucson, Arizona, Agency
Terry Goddard, the Democratic candidate for the Arizona governorship, is counting on the Hispanic vote to win a hard-fought campaign in a state that has recently become known as the most anti-immigrant region in the United States.

According to a survey conducted in the first few days of October by the Behavior Research Center for the Rocky Mountain Poll, incumbent Republican Gov. Jan Brewer is leading Goddard, currently the state's attorney general, by just three percentage points among Arizona voters.

Meanwhile, among Hispanics, 60 percent prefer Goddard, compared with 13 percent who think that Brewer would be the better choice.

According to the same survey, however, Brewer is holding an 11-point lead over Goddard among likely voters.

"I don't think there has ever been an election in Arizona as important as the one now, where the future and the path our state will take will be defined," said Goddard in an interview with Efe.

"I'm really convinced that the factor that will make the difference is if we manage to capture the Hispanic vote," the Democrat said.

Brewer gained popularity among the most conservative voters in Arizona after signing controversial state law SB1070, the first in the United States to make it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant.

Goddard opposes SB1070, saying that in his judgment it is not the solution to the immigration problem and its approval has had a "terrible" effect on the economy and the state's image.

The Democratic candidate emphasized that border security must focus on fighting organized crime, drug cartels and migrant smugglers.

"We have the teams and the intelligence to be able to dismantle the criminal organizations operating on the frontier, breaking them up completely," he said.

As Arizona's attorney general, Goddard has implemented several programs to seize money generated by drug trafficking.

Goddard feels that one of the main jobs the next governor will have will be to change the anti-immigrant image that Arizona has acquired since the approval of SB1070.

"We also have to work to improve relations with our neighbor to the south," he said, referring to Mexico.

He said that he was very concerned about the economic crisis being experienced by border towns such as Nogales, where commercial activity has fallen by 20 percent.

Goddard said that if he is elected governor he will use his veto power to prevent unconstitutional laws from being approved, such as he says occurred with SB1070.

He rejected the bill presented by Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce that seeks to alter the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deny citizenship to the children of undocumented people born in this country.

With regard to Initiative 107, which aims to end affirmative action programs in the state and which will be on the ballot on Nov. 2, the Democrat feels that it will seriously affect minority students and small businessmen.

"This initiative aims to destroy the efforts that they are making so that everyone has the same opportunity. I believe it will have a strong impact on scholarships granted by universities to minority students, many of them of Hispanic origin," Goddard said.