The sleeping giant

Helped by the fight over immigration, Democratic presidential candidates are courting Hispanic voters like never before, prompted by a string of early primaries in states with sizable Hispanic voting blocs, the New York Times reports..

It has forced candidates to hire outreach consultants, to start Spanish-language Web sites and to campaign vigorously before Hispanic audiences.

The battle for Hispanic voters is a result of the decision by several states with large Hispanic populations to move their presidential primaries to early 2008, including California, Florida and New York. Roughly two-thirds of the nation’s Hispanic residents live in nine of the states holding Democratic primaries or caucuses on or before Feb. 5.

Republican and Democratic strategists, as well as independent analysts, say the influence of Hispanic voters is likely to be amplified next year because of an unusually intense response in many Hispanic communities to immigration policy. Conservative Republicans, with the help of some left-leaning Democrats, teamed up on Thursday to derail an immigration bill in the Senate that would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

It is in the new early primary states where Democrats hope the outreach efforts bear fruit. In the last presidential election, Hispanic voters accounted for a significant part of the overall Democratic primary electorate in California (16 percent), New York (11 percent), Arizona (17 percent) and Florida (9 percent), all states that will hold primaries by Feb 5.

Sergio Bendixen, a pollster hired by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign to study Hispanic voting trends, said: “The Hispanic vote has never been all that important in the presidential primary process in the United States. But that will change in 2008.”

At this early stage, Mrs. Clinton, a New York Democrat, appears best poised to benefit from the heightened Hispanic role in the primary process. She has already captured a prized endorsement, of Mayor Antonio R . Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, one of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic politicians.