Los Republicanos are coming to town. By JOSE CANCELA

Talk about a turnaround: Republican presidential contenders who couldn’t be dragged near a Spanish-language debate three short months ago suddenly are tripping all over each other in the mad dash to take part in the debate next Sunday at the University of Miami.

Back in August, the Spanish-language network Univision offered the presidential candidates from both parties a chance to make history. For the first time ever, the network planned to put on nationally televised presidential debates in Spanish.

The Democrats accepted. The Republicans, for the most part, scurried for cover. The notable exceptions, to their credit, were Sen. John McCain and lesser-known contender Duncan Hunter. The rest were all too busy to get together for the debate — no matter what date Univision offered.

The catch may have been their concern over the ”I” word. Immigration has been a polarizing lightning rod throughout the campaign, with hard-liners calling for deportations and taller fences, and Hispanics reading the words as thinly veiled bigotry. It seemed the Republicans faced a choice of further disaffecting Hispanics or pushing away the ultraconservative party faithful.

The Democratic debate went on as scheduled and, yes, the candidates dealt with the immigration question. But, lo and behold, there was no bitter backlash. And, as commentator Arianna Huffington noted in her blog, the Spanish-language debate drew an audience even larger than any of the English-language debates held before that.

”According to Nielsen Fast National Ratings, the 4.6 million viewership trumps the average reach of 4.3 million viewers set by this year’s English-language debates on ABC, CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC,” Huffington wrote.

That was September and, at the time, Fred Thompson — actor, U.S. senator and latecomer to the presidential races — hadn’t yet thrown his hat into the ring. On Nov. 8, he led the way for the Republican turnabout.

”Sen. Thompson is committed to sharing his vision for America’s future with all Americans, and that is why he agreed to participate in this forum,” Thompson advisor Carlos Curbelo said.

Within an hour, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney suddenly found space in their busy calendars to join the debate.

”Mayor Giuliani has been looking forward to participating in the Univision debate, and we are happy to accept the invitation today,” campaign spokesman Elliott Bundy told The Miami Herald.

Sure, he was. Just itching for a chance, I’m sure. And, thank goodness his packed calendar suddenly had an opening where he could fit the debate in. What a convenient coincidence.

But the reverse smacks of desperation. With narrow margins separating the leading contenders and the Republican core of voters divided, reaching out for Hispanics is a matter of necessity. And, therein, the damage. We feel like we’re being used, not courted.

By rejecting Univision’s overtures in August, the Republicans only increased the rising taste of bile in the mouths of Hispanics who felt the immigration debate had shifted from stated reasons of national security to racist suggestions of ethnic purity.

Especially since it wasn’t just the national television forum that the Republicans avoided. Every one of the major candidates spurned offers to meet before two of the most important Hispanic groups in the country — the National Association of Latino Elected Officials and the National Council of La Raza. (The exception, again, was Duncan Hunter, at NALEO.)

”It’s not just that they are not coming. It’s that some of them are visibly insulting us,” Cecilia Muñoz, vice president of NCLR, told Politico.com. “It’s very hard to imagine how some of these candidates are going to turn around and ask us for our vote.”

In another recent column, I noted that Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave. Hispanics have been a critically important demographic target since Reagan’s days. And the GOP had made impressive strides in wresting many Latinos away from the Democrats, all the way up to President Bush’s unprecedented success with the Hispanic vote in 2004.
Now it seems that the Republicans are willing to throw it all away. At least it seemed that way, up until the candidates rushed to join the Spanish-language debate this coming Sunday. Maybe they finally have taken to heart a message in my book about the U.S. Hispanic market We Vote.

Jose Cancela is Principal of Hispanic USA Inc, a full service Hispanic Market Communications firm. He is also the author of “The Power of Business en Español, Seven Fundamental Keys to Unlocking the Potential of the Spanish Language Hispanic Market” Rayo / HarperCollins

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