Election Day - New Mexico - onPolitix

Electoral College set to affirm Obama re-election

2012-12-17T18:08:07Z

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Tradition trumped suspense Monday as members of the Electoral College cast the official, final votes in an exhausting 2012 presidential election, a constitutional formality on President Barack Obama's march to a second term.

The rite playing in state capitols involved party luminaries and tireless activists carrying out the will of each state's voters. The popular vote from state-to-state dictates whether Democratic or Republican electors get the honor, but the outcome is not in doubt.

Obama is on course to get 332 votes to Romney's 206, barring defectors.

In New Hampshire, electors supporting Obama signed their four ballots and sealed the envelopes with wax that has been in the secretary of state's office for more than 70 years.

"It's been a long haul for all of us," said state Secretary of State Bill Gardner, alluding to New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary that sparked intense campaigning there for more than a year.

In Mississippi, which Republican Mitt Romney carried comfortably, six men chosen earlier as electors met in a small committee room in the state Capitol and cast their votes for Romney. Well aware they were doing so in a lost cause, they opted for humor. The state's Republican governor, Phil Bryant, joked that Billy Mounger, an 86-year-old elector, probably wished to vote for Calvin Coolidge, a renowned small-government conservative president in the 1920s.

"I'd like to have Coolidge back," said Mounger, a wealthy Jackson businessman.

The ballots are on their way to Washington, where Congress will officially count them on Jan. 6.

The 12th Amendment directs the electors chosen by the states to meet and vote for president and vice president. Each state gets its equivalent in the 435-member House and the 100-member Senate. The District of Columbia gets the other three electors.

With the Electoral College in focus, advocates for revamping the current system seized on the chance to argue for a change guaranteeing the national popular vote winner is elected president. The compact among states would award future electoral votes to the national vote leader regardless of how candidates perform in a particular state. The shift has been approved in nine places and is pending in many others, but it won't take effect unless states possessing a majority of electoral votes ratify it.

Minnesota Rep. Pat Garofalo, a Republican, said an increasingly shrinking electoral college map has lavished candidate attention on a select few states while most are mere spectators.

"The rest of the country gets hosed," he said, adding, "The most important principle here is the candidate who gets the most votes should win and every vote should be equal."

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Contributing to this reporter were Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H.; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss.

Election hits $2B mark amid last-minute donations

2012-12-07T12:16:25Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — Remarkable for its last-minute surge of contributions, the U.S. presidential election witnessed unprecedented sums of cash boosting two men in their quest for the White House. It was a cost that surpassed $2 billion and sometimes came with the cloak of anonymity for billionaire donors.

The election was the first in which "super" political action committees spent hundreds of millions on television ads, especially those supporting GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Super PACs, like those helping President Barack Obama, benefited from deep wells of money from wealthy donors and corporations.

A handful of mega donors stood out. The most prominent were Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, who together contributed nearly $100 million — as promised — to help Republican candidates. On the left, celebrities like Jeffrey Katzenberg poured millions of dollars into efforts helping Obama win a second term.

More than $230 million in super PAC money bolstered Romney's candidacy, adding to the massive haul by the Republican Party for the former Massachusetts governor. The pro-Romney super PACs were able to hammer the president in swing states with meticulously designed ads highlighting a woeful economy and what they portrayed as Obama's failed record.

A sizable chunk of that cash flowed in just weeks before Election Day. Because Federal Election Commission rules don't require groups to report until late November the money they've raised since mid-October, many top donors escaped scrutiny until after the Nov. 6 voting. The Adelsons' $33 million gift to two pro-Romney super PACs, as well as $3 million from Larry Ellison, head of software giant Oracle Corp., were not divulged until Thursday.

The pro-Obama Priorities USA Action raked in nearly 20 percent of the money it raised this election during the final weeks of the campaign. Much of that $15 million haul, records show, came from repeat million-dollar donors like Fred Eychaner, the founder of Chicago-based Newsweb Corp., and from the ranks of Renaissance Technologies, whose investors donated $4 million in the campaign's final weeks.

Those pots of money, in turn, enabled super PACs to dole out millions of dollars on pricey television ads in important swing states, including some where razor-thin ballot margins had been forecast for Election Day.

"The super PACs helped Romney run a more competitive race," said R. Donahue Peebles, an Obama fundraiser from New York. "But, in the end, money can take a candidate only so far."

Surpassing the $2 billion record was long expected after an election season dominated by the supercharged competitive pressures that both campaigns faced in mounting massive fundraising blitzes to stoke expensive media ad battles and ground wars. The Obama and Romney campaigns mobilized competing squads of ultra-wealthy fundraisers, sought aid from free-spending allied super PACS and deployed multimillion-dollar media broadsides and armies of organizers.

Romney and the GOP reported raising more than $920 million by election's end, compared with Obama and the Democrats' $960 million. Obama had been largely outspent by Romney and allied groups during the summer, but the president's campaign began to close that gap as Election Day approached.

Campaigns and outside groups brought in more than $1 billion to help each candidate, an Associated Press review of financial records showed. In 2008, Obama shattered records by raising more than $750 million in donations. Romney's campaign, for its part, said it stretched its dollar competing against an incumbent.

"Every dollar we raised was put to use in the effort to elect Mitt Romney," said finance chair Spencer Zwick, citing strong fundraising during the final weeks leading up to Nov. 6. Romney's election effort brought in $85.9 million since mid-October, compared with Obama's $111 million during the same period.

After a series of high-profile federal court rulings, the nation's relaxed campaign-finance system allowed for unlimited contributions from corporations, labor groups and others; television advertisements from nonprofit groups that concealed who paid for them and the proliferation of more than 1,000 super PACs. Those groups can't coordinate with the candidates they support, but groups on both sides of the political aisle were staffed with former campaign advisers who were deft political fundraisers.

But the election was known just as much for its sources of so-called dark money as it was for its hefty price tag.

Nonprofit "social welfare" organizations spent hundreds of millions more on so-called issue ads, and those groups don't have to disclose their donors because they're governed by tax law. Open-government groups have pushed Congress, to no avail, for a law that would require politically active groups to reveal their finances.

As well, federal rules require timely disclosure for super PACs, but determining who's behind big donations isn't always easy. In summer 2011, a fledgling company dissolved shortly after making a $1 million contribution to a super PAC supporting Romney; records showed that the company, established and closed over a four-month period, was formed by a Romney supporter who once worked with him at the private equity firm Bain Capital.

Other super PACs active this election season benefited from opaque, eleventh-hour contributions. FreedomWorks for America, a prominent tea party group, reported more than $5.2 million in donations during the first half of October — about 90 percent of the group's fundraising haul — from an apparent shell company in Knoxville, Tenn., called Specialty Group that advertises no product or service.

The company's owner, William Rose, said in a statement he was under no obligation to reveal where his money — ultimately used to boost high-profile congressional races — came from.

Face of US changing; elections to look different

2012-11-12T14:18:09Z

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not just the economy, stupid. It's the demographics — the changing face of America.

The 2012 elections drove home trends that have been embedded in the fine print of birth and death rates, immigration statistics and census charts for years.

America is rapidly getting more diverse, and, more gradually, so is its electorate.

Nonwhites made up 28 percent of the electorate this year, compared with 20 percent in 2000. Much of that growth is coming from Hispanics.

The trend has worked to the advantage of President Barack Obama two elections in a row now and is not lost on Republicans poring over the details of Tuesday's results.

Obama captured a commanding 80 percent of the growing ranks of nonwhite voters in 2012, just as he did in 2008. Republican Mitt Romney won 59 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

Romney couldn't win even though he dominated among white men and outperformed 2008 nominee John McCain with that group. It's an ever-shrinking slice of the electorate and of America writ large.

White men made up 34 percent of the electorate this year, down from 46 percent in 1972.

"The new electorate is a lagging indicator of the next America," says Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center. "We are mid-passage in a century-long journey from the middle of the last century, when we were nearly a 90 percent white nation, to the middle of this coming century, when we will be a majority-minority nation."

Another trend that will be shaping the future electorate is the stronger influence of single women. They vote differently from men and from women who are married. Fifty-four percent of single women call themselves Democrats; 36 percent of married women do.

With women marrying later and divorcing more, single women made up 23 percent of voters in the 2012 election, compared with 19 percent in 2000.

The changing electorate has huge implications for public policy and politics.

Suddenly, immigration overhaul seems a lot more important, for one thing.

Ask white voters about the proper role of government, for another, and 60 percent think it should do less. Ask Hispanics the same question, and 58 percent think the government should do more, as do 73 percent of blacks, exit polls show.

You can hear it in the voice of Alicia Perez, a 31-year-old immigration attorney who voted last week at a preschool in Ysleta, Texas.

"I trust the government to take care of us," she said. "I don't trust the Republican Party to take care of people."

Sure, the election's biggest issue, the economy, affects everyone. But the voters deciding who should tackle it were quite different from the makeup of the 1992 "It's the economy, stupid" race that elected Democrat Bill Clinton as president.

Look no further than the battleground states of Campaign 2012 for political ramifications flowing from the country's changing demographics.

New Western states have emerged as battlegrounds as the Hispanic population there grows. In Nevada, for example, white voters made up 80 percent of the electorate in 2000; now they're at 64 percent. The share of Hispanics in the state's electorate has grown to 19 percent; Obama won 70 percent of their votes.

Obama won most of the battlegrounds with a message that was more in sync than Romney's with minorities, women and younger voters, and by carefully targeting his grassroots mobilizing efforts to reach those groups.

In North Carolina, where Romney narrowly defeated Obama, 42 percent of black voters said they had been contacted on behalf of Obama, compared with just 26 percent of whites, exit polls showed. Obama got just 31 percent of the state's white vote, but managed to keep it competitive by claiming 96 percent of black voters and 68 percent of Hispanics.

Young voters in the state, two-thirds of whom backed Obama, also were more often the target of Obama's campaign than Romney's: 35 percent said they were contacted by Obama, 11 percent by Romney. Among senior citizens, two-thirds of whom voted Republican, 33 percent were contacted by Obama, 34 percent by Romney.

Howard University sociologist Roderick Harrison, former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau, said Obama's campaign strategists proved themselves to be "excellent demographers."

"They have put together a coalition of populations that will eventually become the majority or are marching toward majority status in the population, and populations without whom it will be very difficult to win national elections and some statewide elections, particularly in states with large black and Hispanic populations," Harrison said.

One way to see the trend is to look at the diversity of young voters. Among voters under 30 years old this year, only 58 percent are white. Among senior voters, 87 percent are white.

Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey says policymakers and politicians need to prepare for a growing "cultural generation gap."

"Both parties are getting the message that this is a new age and a new America," says Frey. "Finally, the politics is catching up with the demography."

Just as Republicans need to do a better job of attracting Hispanics, says Frey, Democrats need to do more to reach out to whites.

The face of Congress is changing more slowly than the electorate or the population, but changing it is.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California was happy to highlight the news that for the first time in history, more than half the members of her caucus next year will be women, black, Hispanic or Asian. She said it "reflects the great diversity and strength of our nation."

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, whose caucus is far more white and male, said Republicans need to learn to "speak to all Americans — you know, not just to people who look like us and act like us."

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, one of the GOP's most prominent black women, said the party needs to understand that "the changing demographics in the country really necessitate an even bigger tent for the Republican Party."

"Clearly we are losing important segments of that electorate and what we have to do is to appeal to those people not as identity groups but understanding that if you can get the identity issue out of the way, then you can appeal on the broader issues that all Americans share a concern for," she said.

All sides know the demographic trends are sure to become more pronounced in the future.

In the past year, minority babies outnumbered white newborns for the first time in U.S. history. By midcentury, Hispanics, blacks, Asians and multiracial people combined will become the majority of the U.S.

Since 2000, the Hispanic and Asian populations have grown by more than 40 percent, fueled by increased immigration of younger people as well as more births.

Currently, Hispanics are the largest minority group and make up 17 percent of the U.S. population, compared with 12 percent for blacks and 5 percent for Asians. Together minorities now make up more than 36 percent of the population.

Hispanics will make up roughly 30 percent of the U.S. by midcentury, while the African-American share is expected to remain unchanged at 12 percent. Asian-Americans will grow to roughly 8 percent of the U.S.

"The minorities will vote," said demographer Frey. "The question is will their vote be split more across the two parties than it was this time?"

For both Republicans and Democrats, he said, the 2012 election is a wake-up call that will echo through the decades.

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta, Associated Press News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.

Obama: Americans agree with my approach on deficit

2012-11-09T12:39:37Z

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, laying down his marker for grueling "fiscal cliff" negotiations, said Friday he won't accept any approach to federal deficit reduction that doesn't ask the wealthy to pay more in taxes.

"This was a central question during the election," Obama said in his first postelection comments on the economy. "The majority of Americans agree with my approach."

The president, speaking in the White House East Room, said he wasn't wedded to every detail of the plans he outlined during the election, adding, "I'm open to compromise." But he offered no indication that he was willing to back down on his insistence that the wealthy pay more.

Republicans stood their ground. At the Capitol, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he remains unwilling to raise tax rates on upper-income earners. But he left open the possibility of balancing spending cuts with new revenue that could be achieved by revising the tax code to lower rates and eliminate some tax breaks.

Obama said he had invited congressional leaders of both parties to the White House next week to start negotiations on averting the tax increases and automatic spending cuts due to hit in January. Both parties agree that those changes, the result of failed deficit-cut talks earlier this year, could send the economy back into recession.

The president avoided any mention of specific tax rates in his remarks, saying only that the wealthy should pay more. He also called on Congress to quickly pass an extension of tax cuts, first enacted by George W. Bush, for families making less than $250,000 a year.

Republicans, as they have throughout Obama's first term, say raising tax rates on wealthier Americans is a non-starter. Boehner said such increases would hurt small businesses just as they are trying to recover from the severe last recession.

"I'm proposing that we avert the fiscal cliff together in a manner that ensures that 2013 is finally the year that our government comes to grips with the major problems that are facing us," the speaker said. He said cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps, known as entitlement programs, have to be part of the equation.

Still, Boehner declined to provide specific proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff.

He did say that raising the debt limit, which the government will reach sometime in the spring, should be part of any negotiations. Pressed for details beyond that framework, he said he didn't want to limit ideas to address the problem. He burden is on Obama, he said.

"This is an opportunity for the president to lead," Boehner said. He repeated a version of that phrase four times during the 11 minutes he spoke. "This is his moment to engage the Congress and work toward a solution that can pass both chambers."

Changing times: Politicians' tears more common now

2012-11-09T12:01:30Z

It seems out of place: The president of the United States breaking down in tears as he thanked campaign workers for their tireless work for his re-election.

But Barack Obama isn't the only world leader unashamed to be seen crying in public — or simply unable to avoid it. Attitudes seem to have changed since the early 1970s, when an alleged crying incident during the presidential primary season went a long way toward derailing the candidacy of a Maine senator.

The teary trend has picked up speed in recent years, or perhaps it has just been noticed more often because of ubiquitous TV, still and cellphone cameras. Here are some recent examples:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

Victorious in his re-election campaign, Obama cried while giving a speech to his campaign staff and volunteers. He told the gathered young people there was no limit to what they could accomplish. The speech touched on his start as a community organizer in Chicago and reflected his faith that his young volunteers and staff would accomplish great things in the decades to come.

It was an emotional side of Obama that had rarely been visible during the long, often negative, campaign.

EVEN STRONG MEN CRY

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a judo fan and hunting aficionado known in part for his physical fitness. But that didn't stop him from welling up in March after he was returned to power in a difficult election battle marred by public protests. It was a break with Kremlin tradition in a country where leaders are rarely seen to show emotions.

A defiant Putin proclaimed that he and his followers had beaten back opponents determined to destroy Russia's statehood and usurp power.

The tears were ridiculed by his political opponents and drew some sarcastic comments from political foes in the United States, but did not seem to harm his standing.

NOT READY TO LEAVE

She was known as a strong, even imperious leader who thrived on power politics and led Britain in the war to recover the Falklands Islands. But the enduring image of Margaret Thatcher's departure from office is the tearful face captured by photographers in 1990 as she left 10 Downing Street for the last time.

The "iron lady" was removed as party leader and prime minister after 11 years in power and replaced by John Major. The crying incident is remembered as offering a rare glimpse into her personal feelings, which were typically kept far from public view.

GOODBYE, MAN FROM MAINE

Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie was a front-runner in the race for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination until he appeared to break down while defending his wife from an attack by an influential New Hampshire newspaper.

Muskie always claimed it was snowflakes, not tears, but the damage had been done. His supposed crying was perceived as a show of weakness and instability, and his campaign never recovered. His rival, Sen. George McGovern, won the nomination, but was later trounced by President Richard Nixon. Although Muskie's presidential hopes were dashed, he later became Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter.

THE WEEPER OF THE HOUSE

As Speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner holds one of the most powerful positions in the U.S. government — and he cries so frequently that Twitter jokesters have taken to calling him the weeper of the house. He tears up easily, particularly when talking about the American dream.

He's been known to cry at school events or when fielding questions from constituents or when talking about his family. A well-watched YouTube clip captures him choking up with tears when talking about the need to combat terrorism and provide safety and security for Americans.

Gen Y: How the young vote was won

2012-11-08T17:16:31Z

(LIN) — Americans spend a lot of time behind a screen. Computers, TV, phones and tablets – if it flashes, tweets, or communicates with friends or entertains in any way, we’re an easy sell.

And everyone running for office this year took advantage, blaring advertisements on TV, YouTube, Facebook and other social media networks.

One size doesn’t fit all, though. To get the young vote, candidates had to get more creative than a 10-second ad before a YouTube video of the honey badger.

This year, many attempts were made to get young voters to the polls, and it seemed to work.

A survey by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) showed that 22-23 million young Americans (ages 18-29), or at least 49 percent went to the polls Tuesday, and that number is expected to rise as more post-election information is made available from precincts.

View the complete survey here

In 2004, 2008, and 2012 turnout has been in the vicinity of 50 percent each time for this age group, compared to just 37 percent in 1996 and 41 percent in 2000.

In the months leading up to the presidential election, MTV ‘s “Power of 12” campaign tailored messages to the 18-29 year-old voting bloc, pushing candidate profiles, information on how to vote and encouraged young voters to talk about what matters to them. In the final weeks of his campaign, President Barack Obama spent an hour on MTV answering questions from young viewers about what he could bring to the presidency.

Another way young voters were reached during the campaign was social media.

Throughout the 2012 presidential campaign, it was easy to ignore the negative advertising and look forward to the day when it would all be over. But when it came to Election Day, people wanted everyone to know they did their civic duty.

On Facebook, users logged in on Tuesday to see a box at the top of their news feed asking if they plan to vote. A button directing users to their polling place was prominently displayed as well.

Once users clicked the “I’m voting,” their response was recorded and plotted on a map.

Facebook tracked not only the location of voters, but their age group as well, showing that two-thirds of all Facebook users who used this poll were under 35. Those between the ages of 18 and 24 made up 30 percent of the voters, while those 25 to 34 made up 32 percent.

Researcher James Fowler explained to TechCrunch.com, “Facebook caused an extra third of a million people to vote. To put that number in context, remember that the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election was won by a margin of just 537 votes in Florida.”

Foursquare users also got an “I Voted” pin when using #ivoted when checking in to their polling place. (Absentee voters could still use the hashtag to get the pin.)

According to the CIRCLE survey, young voters favored Obama by a 24-point margin. The study also postulates that if Romney had won half the youth vote in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia — or if young people had stayed home all together — Romney would have won those key battleground states. Those four states account for 80 electoral votes, which would have changed the outcome of the election .

Though this election is over, the next four years will quickly pass and new candidates will come to the surface for the 2016 election.

Now is the time for those campaigns to consider the gravity of the young vote and consider the return on time spent reaching them on their playing fields.

It could be the deciding factor in the next election.

—

Gen Y is a weekly opinion piece covering issues that matter most to younger, influential voters through their late 30s. Jessica O. Swink, a 20-something, is the digital political producer for LIN Media and contributing editor to onPolitix.

Fla. counting last presidential votes; Obama leads

2012-11-08T15:15:10Z

MIAMI (AP) — Florida is counting its final presidential ballots as President Barack Obama holds a narrow lead in the state.

Photos: Obama wins

Most of the remaining ballots are being counted Thursday in Miami-Dade County. The state's largest county had a last-minute wave of absentee ballots that needed to be processed. Combined with a tight race, that has delayed the announcement of a winner.

Obama leads the count 49.9 percent to Romney's 49.3 percent. That's a difference of about 47,000 votes out of 8.3 million cast.

If he claims Florida's 29 electoral votes, Obama would increase his victory margin in the Electoral College to 332 to Romney's 206.

Obama's big Hispanic win worries GOP

2012-11-08T14:36:06Z

DENVER (AP) -- Omayra Vasquez blinks and does a double take when asked why she voted for President Barack Obama. The reason for her was as natural as breathing.

"I feel closer to him," said Vasquez, a 43-year-old Federal Express worker from Denver. "He cares about the Spanish people."

Photos: Obama wins

Millions of Hispanic voters seconded that emotion Tuesday with resounding 71 percent support for Obama, tightening Democrats' grip on the White House and putting Republicans on notice that they must seriously court the nation's largest minority group if they want to win the presidency again.

According to initial exit polls, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who backed hard-line immigration measures, came away with 27 percent Hispanic support, less than any presidential candidate in 16 years and a sharp drop from the 44 percent claimed by President George W. Bush in 2004 after he embraced immigration reform.

"We could have won this election if the party had a better brand name with Hispanics," said Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union. "I don't believe there's a path to the White House in the future that doesn't include 38 percent-40 percent Hispanic support."

Cardenas said Hispanics were only a large part of a worrisome trend in the electorate, which is increasingly comprised of younger and minority voters who traditionally do not back Republicans. If the 1980 electorate looked like the 2012 version, he added, Jimmy Carter would have defeated Ronald Reagan.

Matt Schlapp, who was political director of George W. Bush's 2000 campaign, drew parallels between the GOP's standing with Hispanics and the party's troubles with African-Americans, who now routinely back Democrats by 9-1 margins. "The idea that we would somehow copy that with the Hispanic community is troubling," he said.

Hispanics have long favored Democrats. But they have been trending even more sharply toward that party since Republicans stymied Bush's immigration proposal and favored hard-line immigration measures that critics decried as racially motivated.

Romney tapped an author of Arizona's controversial immigration law to advise him during the GOP primaries and called for "self-deportation" to lower the number of illegal immigrants. Obama, meanwhile, announced in June that immigration authorities would grant work permits to people brought here illegally as children who graduated high school or served in the military. The directive energized a Hispanic electorate that had been disappointed by Obama's inability to pass immigration reforms.

A survey of Hispanic voters by the firm Latino Decisions found that Hispanics gave Obama his winning margin in Colorado, Florida and Nevada, swing states where they turned out in unusually high numbers. Even before the races were called, some Republicans took to the airwaves and social media calling for the party to back off its hard-line stance and embrace certain immigration reforms.

It's unclear whether the results would change the party's opposition to legalizing some illegal immigrants. In a conversation with the Des Moines Register last month, Obama predicted that GOP opposition could crumble after Hispanics delivered the White House to him. The conversation was initially off the record but later published with the president's consent.

"And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt," Obama said. "Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community."

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed to introduce an immigration reform package next year, saying Republicans would reject it "at their peril."

Opponents of an immigration deal warned that Republicans should not take the Democrats' bait. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies noted that Hispanics have reliably backed Democrats for decades, even after President Ronald Reagan signed an immigration amnesty in 1986 that gave many of them legal status. Those new American citizens, Camarota said, turned into Democrats.

Camarota and other supporters of immigration restrictions contend that Hispanics lean Democratic because they favor government social programs and higher taxes on the wealthy. "They changed the national electorate and now they have to move with the electorate," Camarota said of the GOP. "For 30 years that we have data, Hispanics have been voting Democratic. There's no reason to think that's going to change unless the Republican Party moves away from its low-tax, low-regulation position."

NumbersUSA President Roy Beck, whose group advocates reductions in immigration levels, argues that Republicans like Romney need to explain to Hispanic voters why immigration restrictions are in their interest. His group advocates reductions in immigration levels. "He should have talked about Hispanic unemployment and how much high immigration hurts Hispanic employment."

Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., an immigration hawk, agreed and said economic issues, not immigration, are key to winning Hispanics. "You should never sacrifice your core beliefs for political reasons," he said.

The debate is nothing new for the GOP.

Mario H. Lopez, president of the conservative Hispanic Leadership Fund, said he's heard arguments like that before -- after every election in which Hispanics lean more Democratic and Republicans suffer. "The clock has been ticking," Lopez said. "Some of us have been talking about it for years. It's up to them if they want to listen or have more nights like Tuesday night."

Celebrities air post-election feelings online

2012-11-07T19:52:47Z

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mariah Carey was so excited about President Barack Obama's re-election that she released a new song in his honor. Beyonce popped up on Instagram with a rebuke for Mitt Romney, while Romney supporter Elisabeth Hasselbeck sent out a disappointed but conciliatory tweet urging a divided United States to become one.

Celebrities, who voiced their opinions loudly during the election, continued to speak their minds after the ballots were counted.

Cameron Diaz, who is promoting her film "Gambit" in London, said she was worried about the election as she fell asleep.

"I was terrified that I was going to wake up to a total embarrassment for our country and that today would be a very different day for me," she said Wednesday. "But I was so thrilled."

Romney supporters Donald Trump and Ted Nugent ranted on Twitter after the election that the country is doomed, while Spike Lee and Russell Simmons celebrated Obama's victory and the diverse electorate behind it.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams called attention to Trump's series of tweets Tuesday while covering election returns, saying the real-estate magnate and reality-TV star had "driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible" with his posts.

"This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!" Trump tweeted. "Let's fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us."

Nugent was similarly upset — and expressive — Wednesday morning.

"Pimps whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters hav a president to destroy America," he wrote. "Goodluk America u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools."

He concluded with: "I cry tears of blood for The Last Best Place & the warriors who died for this tragedy."

Hasselbeck shared a more measured response, tweeting, "(Hash) momentofpeace: You cannot love the game only when your player wins. We remain to be the greatest nation and (at)BarackObama is OUR President." Mark Cuban, meanwhile, extended a virtual olive branch to Trump, writing, "I know it was a rough night for u," and inviting Trump to join him in raising funds for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Spike Lee was among the most vocal Obama supporters online after the election, using his Twitter feed to blast the Republican party.

"Great Lesson. This Is Not Ike's 1950's USA. Complexion Of This Great Country Has Changed-A True Melting Pot. The GOP Is Stuck In A Time Warp. YO," the filmmaker wrote Wednesday. "GOP WAKE UP. This Is Not" LEAVE TO BEAVER.FATHER KNOWS BEST OR MAYBERRY R.F.D." THE 21st CENTURY. And Dat's Da 2nd Term Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG??"

Beyonce also gloated a bit, posting a photo on her blog that read, "Take that Mitches." It was accompanied by another photo of the singer wearing a "Texans for Obama" T-shirt.

Carey released a new song, "Bring It On Home," online Wednesday to celebrate the president's victory. She first performed the song at an Obama fundraiser over the summer, said Carey publicist Cindi Berger.

The pop star also shared her support on Twitter.

"Congratulations to our beloved President Barack Obama, our spectacular First Lady Michelle Obama & the adorable Malia & Sasha. We love you!" Carey wrote. "INCREDIBLE SPEECH!!!!!! Watching in a room full of diverse people-all truly moved. Thank you America for President Obama-4more yrs."

Simmons also acknowledged the diversity of Obama supporters in a blog post Wednesday called "Forward!"

"This is no time for triumphalism, because we are still in an economic crisis and we still have deep social divisions that must be dealt with," he wrote. "But we have to absorb, as a country, as a NATION, that first and foremost, AMERICA IS CHANGING... We cannot fight demographics by ignoring women, Latinos, blacks, young people, and gays who gave their lives for our country.

"The middle class and poor need support," he continues, "and every politician who is not ready for this change should wake today and realize that minorities will wait in line into the early hours of the morning to vote them out of office. Forward, we go."

Scores of other stars — including Tony Bennett, Cher, Shakira, Lady Gaga, Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson— celebrated Obama's victory on Twitter.

Others, including filmmaker Ron Howard and actors Rob Lowe and James Van Der Beek, say it's time to move past the election toward mending the nation.

"To all the winners (and losers) tonight: Politicians run campaigns. Leaders strike compromises," Van Der Beek wrote. "Time for everyone to shift gears now (hash)please."

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— AP Entertainment Writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report from London.

Michelle Obama picked Kors for Election Night

2012-11-07T18:36:02Z

NEW YORK (AP) — As Michelle Obama stepped on stage with her husband in Chicago early Wednesday morning, she accepted her role not only as first lady but fashion tastemaker for four more years — this time, wearing a Michael Kors magenta silk chine pin-tucked dress.

As Mrs. Obama joined President Barack Obama, she sported a dress pulled in at the waist, and she topped it with a black shrug that showed a peek of a vintage pink brooch from House of Lavande. She was surrounded by her trend-right daughters: Malia wore an electric-blue, A-line skirt with a pink studded belt that looks like the teen version of the first lady's signature Azzedine Alaia belt, and Sasha had on an abstract-print green skirt, gray bow-front top and mimicked her mom's shrunken cardigan look.

Mrs. Obama has been a reinvigorating force for the fashion industry, from her late-night online J. Crew purchases to her savvy courtship with up-and-coming designers, including Prabal Gurung and Jason Wu. Kors has been a consistent label in her wardrobe, with Mrs. Obama wearing a black, racer-back dress by the designer in her official White House portrait, as well as a hot-pink gown for a White House Correspondents' Dinner and a red halter gown at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Phoenix Awards dinner.

"Mrs. Obama looked chic and elegant as always on Election Night," Kors said in an email to the Associated Press. "My dress, with its strong color, clean lines and feminine silhouette, has all the elements that have become a part of the trademark style of our first lady."

The Council of Fashion Designers of America gave Mrs. Obama its Board of Directors' Special Tribute award in 2009 for her influence in the industry.

Four years ago on Election Night, Mrs. Obama wore a straight-from-the-runway black sheath dress with splashes of red by Narciso Rodriguez.