The Hispanic effect on the 2008 general election

The Hispanic Republicans have been severely over-represented in importance in prior Presidential elections particularly because of their power in Florida. This is changing.

Hispanic voters registered as Democrats have overtaken Hispanic Republicans in Florida. [Snip}

Until now, the politically influential, mostly Republican Cuban-American community in Miami-Dade made Florida the only state in the country where, among Hispanics, Republicans outnumbered Democrats.

April voter registration statistics show 418,339 Hispanic Democrats statewide, compared to 415,068 Hispanic Republicans and 345,108 registered with neither party, according to a Florida Democratic Party analysis of state data.

"There are a few states where the Latino vote is going to be critical - definitely Florida, as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada - and those are going to be battleground states in the national scope," said Lindsay Daniels, a strategist at the National Council of La Raza, a nonpartisan Hispanic advocacy group.

This is going to change the total dynamic of the vote in Florida, and not in the direction of the Republicans.