SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Resuming his push for California Hispanics, George W. Bush was marking today's Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo amid fresh evidence that the crucial voter bloc is leaning heavily toward Democrats.
Bush was to appear at a U.S.-Mexico Foundation breakfast, followed by a meeting with Hispanic leaders in San Diego County, which shares a border with Mexico.On Thursday, the de facto GOP presidential nominee departed from his schedule to campaign in heavily Hispanic Santa Ana, which has become an emblem of rising Hispanic political power.
The Texas governor walked the streets of a bustling Hispanic neighborhood, chatted with residents in Spanish, wolfed down tacos and called himself "Jorge."
Earlier in the day, Bush, who is Methodist, attended Roman Catholic Mass in Orange County. Most Hispanics are Catholic, but Bush said politics played no role in his appearance there.
Bush has made direct appeals to Hispanics a staple of his California campaign swings, where 16 percent of the electorate is Hispanic, compared to 10 percent a decade ago.
A poll released this week suggested his challenge remains formidable.
The number of Hispanic voters has increased by 1 million in the past decade, and that trend has overwhelmingly benefited Democrats, according to the Field Poll.
Many Hispanics remain alienated from the GOP, which led fights during the 1990s against illegal immigration, affirmative action and bilingual education.
According to the survey, nearly half of all Hispanics currently on the voter rolls have registered since 1994, when California voters passed Proposition 187 outlawing most state services to illegal immigrants. Then-Republican Gov. Pete Wilson led the campaign for the ballot measure, which later was scuttled by federal courts.
That measure inspired many Hispanics to register and vote, the pollsters said, and today Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans among registered Hispanics in California. Sixty percent of Hispanics in recent Field Institute surveys said they are Democrats, 22 percent said they are Republicans and 18 percent said they are not affiliated with either party.
California Hispanic voters also preferred Democrat Al Gore over Bush by about 3-to-1 in a March exit poll by Voter News Service for The Associated Press and the television networks.
Asked at a news conference how he would repair the political damage inflicted by Wilson, Bush said, "I've got a record to run on as governor of Texas. I've told our state we weren't going to bash immigrants and I think people here have heard that message," Bush said.
There was good news, too, in Field Poll for Bush, who has been trying to reposition himself in the political center in recent weeks.
About half of California Hispanics, 47 percent, say they are political moderates, while 31 percent are conservative and 22 percent are liberal.
Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday marking the May 5, 1862, victory by a small army of Mexican patriots and peasants over stronger French forces.