DEMOCRATS EYE LATINO VOTE PARTY LEADERS UNVEIL POLICY INITIATIVE AIMED AT NATION'S LARGEST MINORITY.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - In a bid to shore up traditionally strong support among Hispanic voters, House and Senate Democrats announced a major policy initiative Thursday aimed at the nation's largest minority group.

With a heavy focus on education and economic measures, the Democratic Hispanic Agenda is essentially the same as the general Democratic platform. But lawmakers and activists said many of the key points, such as ensuring access to health care, are particularly critical for Hispanic families.

``Everybody wants access to health care. But for Latinos, half of all children don't have any health care whatsoever. It's especially important to Latinos because it's the community with the highest rate of uninsured,'' said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

While Democrats deny any significant erosion of political support in the Hispanic community, Latinos represent one of the most coveted constituencies for the 2004 election and both Republicans and Democrats are courting them.

The agenda also calls for increasing the minimum wage, extending welfare benefits to legal immigrants, and beefing up funding for a variety of programs from adult English classes to Pell grants. It also includes expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program and Medicaid to legal immigrants and allowing states to cover parents of children enrolled in CHIP.

``The issues of the Latino community are the exact issues we need to move forward in California and this country,'' California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said.

Boxer and Congressional Hispanic Caucus members Reps. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte; Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs; Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles; and Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, joined Democratic leaders in unveiling the agenda.

Republicans immediately denounced the agenda as a ``desperate move.''

``They're panicking because they're losing their base,'' said Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee.

``Both parties now have recognized the reality of the Hispanic demographic and vote,'' said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at Claremont College.

RNC officials countered Thursday with a list of administration policies they described as President George W. Bush's ``record of achievement with Hispanics,'' including increasing minority home ownership and implementing the first national diabetes prevention campaign.

``The Democrats are talking about having a Hispanic agenda. We're legislating a Hispanic agenda,'' said Nick Smith, spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, D-Tenn.

Democrats on Thursday acknowledged Bush made early inroads into Hispanic voting blocks, but charged the president's popularity with Latinos is neither substantive nor lasting.

``President Bush has had a great appeal to a great many Latinos who, at least initially, believed what he had said with regard to immigration and education. We're seeing the rhetoric does not match the actions in this administration,'' said Roybal-Allard.

Solis credited the 2000 Census numbers showing Hispanics as the nation's largest immigrant group with opening up her own party's eyes toward the importance the Latino community.

Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, called the Democratic agenda a ``smart move toward securing their base within the Hispanic community.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

DEMOCRATS' LATINO AGENDA

Here are some highlights of the plan announced Thursday by Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill:

--Increase the minimum wage

--Expand welfare benefits to legal immigrants

--Expand the Childrens Health Insurance Program and Medicaid to legal immigrants

--Allow states to cover parents of children enrolled in CHIP

Valley

--Increase federal Pell grant funding.

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DEMOCRATS' LATINO AGENDA (see text)