9/20/2005

Republicans Reaching Out to Hispanic Women

http://wisopinion.com/index.iml?mdl=article.mdl&article=2610

By Camille Solberg

Republican women at the state and national level are making efforts to reach out to Hispanic women as the Latino vote rises in importance.

Ginny Marshman, president of the Wisconsin Federation of Republican Women, says her group is reaching out to Hispanic women.

The state federation already has Hispanic women among their membership. "We look forward to establishing a Hispanic Women's Club here in Wisconsin," adds Marshman.

She feels it needs to be true to the Republican philosophy. "We want to help women become victors not victims. The kind of political empowerment the federation provides as well as women candidate training are all benefits that will help to strengthen individual Latino women, their families and community.

``We will provide a Hispanic women's Web site with information from the state and the National Federation of Republican Women," continues Marshman.

It's part of an effort to reach out to minorities of all persuasions. "Within our newly organized Grassroots Committee, we already have chairmen for African-American Women Outreach, Hispanic Women Outreach and Social Conservative Women Outreach,'' Marshman says. ``We are very interested in establishing outreaches to conservative Jewish women and Asian women as well. The WFRW recognizes that we continue to have a more ethnically diverse population here in Wisconsin. We think of all of our citizens as Americans, but enthusiastically promote political empowerment for women from all ethnic backgrounds and therefore reach out to every minority group.''

The president of the National Federation of Republican Women, Dianne Thompson, shared the same passion this month as NFRW had its 33rd National Biennial Convention in Nashville, Tenn.

Thompson started her career in the Republican politics at a county level with the Republican Women's Federation in Texas when she became an officer of that club. She later ran for district director for the state federation of Texas and won and after that she became vice president of campaign activities for Texas, which led her to become President of the Texas federation. "I just keep going, I love this organization and what they do and stand for and how they help Republican candidates get elected," says Thompson.

According to Thompson, the most dramatic change she has seen since involving herself in the organization and campaigning has been technology. She also believes that women are the grassroots of the party. "We do for candidates what they can't afford to do. If they had to pay us even $15 an hour it would cost them millions and millions of dollars,'' Thompson says.

Hispanic and minority outreach during the 2004 presidential campaign became extremely important. "The chairman of our outreach committee on the national board is also a member of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly. She does a lot of great things in reaching out. We reach out to Hispanics, Asian, Indian, African American, all ethnic groups because they are important.''

She wants Latinos to get the message.

"We have started a lot of Hispanic Republican Women's clubs. One of the first ones was in San Antonio, Texas. If they want to be a Hispanic Club, that's great but we want them to be part of all of it! So all of our states have Hispanic outreach chairs and they each have their own program that works in their state to reach out to Hispanics," explains Thompson.

The Federation is also focusing on the youth. Thompson said that a young college women's club stated in Indiana. According to Thompson that program is going very well. "Women are our future!" she declares.

-- Solberg is a published writer and columnist based in Appleton