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"If we continue to get 25 percent of the Hispanic vote, you wait three or four presidential elections, and you'll be out of business," he warned at the Republican Governors' Association meeting. "If you can move it up to 35 percent, you've got a coalition that you can put together and can work. With 40 percent, you wipe the Democrats out."

The cautionary tale is part of a new crusade led by Tarrance, and sponsored by the Republican National Committee, to help build the party's following among the nation's growing Latino vote. RNC spokeswoman Leslie Sanchez said Tarrance is part of a new consortium put together by the RNC to reach out to American Latinos.

"We are conducting the first-ever comprehensive Hispanic political marketing strategy," Sanchez said. "Commercial organizations have been doing this for a decade, and the Democrats have just taken the Hispanic vote for granted."

Sanchez said the new consortium reflects an acknowledgment by Republicans that the Latino vote may ultimately dictate their political future. "This is a serious approach to the short term as well as the longer term," she said. "We want the Hispanic community to know that the Republican Party wants to get to know you better. We know ideologically we share the same views, we just haven't always been the best spokespeople."

Tarrance told the governors that a racial realignment is underway in America, and that Republicans have historically been slow in recognizing such demographic shifts. He cautioned his party that they had missed out on attracting new Irish and Italian Catholic immigrants at the turn of the century, as well as the urbanization of African-Americans, when 50 percent of American blacks moved out of the South. "If we're not careful, we're going to miss it again," he warned.

The new consortium is the national Republican Party's effort to prevent that from happening. Other members of the group include Frank Guerra, who orchestrated the media for Rep. Henry Bonilla, the first Republican Latino elected to Congress from Texas, as well as Latino-focused ads for the Texas Republican Party in 1998. Lionel Sosa, who did media for George W. Bush's reelection bid in 1998, and his wife Kathy are also involved in the new project.

Next page | The California GOP doesn't get it