ICYMI: Latino Leaders Call on Angle, Sandoval to Denounce Ad Urging Latinos NOT to Vote

After it was revealed that a right-wing Republican front group is attempting to suppress the Latino vote in Nevada with an ad urging Hispanics NOT to vote, local Hispanic leaders condemned the ad. They urged local stations not to run the ad, and called on Republican US Senate candidate Sharron Angle and Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval, who is Hispanic, to denounce the ad.

Watch video of the news conference here.

Watch coverage from Las Vegas’ KLAS Channel 8 here.

Watch coverage from Las Vegas’ KVVU Fox5 here.

Watch coverage from Las Vegas’ KTVN Channel 13 here.

The Las Vegas Sun called the ad a “commercial campaign to suppress the Hispanic vote,” and said this about the group behind it:

The group made a name for itself during the 2008 election cycle campaigning against Obama, on the grounds that he favored blacks over Hispanics.

The leader of that group, Robert Deposada, a conservative pundit on Spanish-language Univision who once ran President George W. Bush’s commission to advance privatization of Social Security, said Hispanics should boycott the polls because Obama has not yet delivered on his campaign promise to tackle immigration reform.

Other Hispanic activists immediately decried the advertisements.

“No Nevadan should be silenced or have their vote suppressed, especially those in the Hispanic community, who have been disproportionately impacted during these tough economic times,” said Luis Valera, vice president of Las Vegas’ Latin Chamber of Commerce.

Valera was joined by other Hispanic leaders in calling for Republican candidates Angle and Brian Sandoval — himself a Hispanic — to denounce the ads, and for radio, television, and Internet providers to pull the plug on the commercials.

Community leaders urged other Hispanics not to be fooled by the ad, and not to have their uniquely American right – the right to vote – stripped from them by an ad campaign they called “sleazy,” “despicable” and “un-American.” They urged Nevadans to get out and vote no matter what their political leanings.

According to a report in POLITICO, the 527 group Latinos for Reform is planning on spending tens of thousands of dollars airing television ads in Nevada encouraging Latinos not to vote.

News of the “keep out the vote” ad campaign broke as local and national media continue to hammer Sharron Angle for telling a group of local Hispanic teenagers that her widely-criticized, incendiary immigration ads aren’t actually about Latinos, but rather the northern border with Canada – sparking an international dustup. Angle’s interest in suppressing the Latino vote is also rooted in the extreme anti-Hispanic agenda she’s established throughout her campaign.