Education and the Latino Vote in New York

The Daily News reports that Democratic mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer is losing some of his support among Latino voters in New York City. Ferrer would capture 54 percent of the Latino vote in a race against Bloomberg (who is polling around 27 percent), but this number is way down from the 82 percent Ferrer won in a 2001 run-off with Mark Green. Ferrer's campaign is having its problems in general (as are the other 3 Democrats), but the real story here may be the political impact of Bloomberg's focus on education as a central issue of his reelection campaign. As Hispanic Federation President Lillian Rodríguez-López said in the article,

the poll found Latinos interested in "education, education, education ... Schools and education were the top issue in deciding, followed by economy and jobs,"