LATINOS, ANGLOS, VOTERS, CANDIDATES, AND VOTING RIGHTS † JONATHAN NAGLER †† R. MICHAEL ALVAREZ In this paper we contrast the demographics, political preferences, and voting behavior of Latinos and Anglos. In doing so, we focus par- ticularly on California because of the large quantity of economic, demographic, and political data concerning Latinos that are available for that state. Also, restricting ourselves to Latinos in California avoids the “problem” of cross-state diversity. We demonstrate that there is remarkable diversity among Latinos within California. Were we to add the Hispanic populations of other states to our analysis, particu- larly Cubans in Florida and Puerto Ricans in New York, we would magnify this diversity considerably. The purpose of our research is to provide suitable factual material for determining whether or not Lati- nos can constitute a “community of interest.”1 We do not offer a new theory of “community of interest” here. But we think that a commu- nity of interest must be based more on shared preferences than on po- litical outcomes (where “political outcomes” can be policy choices or candidates running for office). † Professor of Politics, New York University. †† Professor of Political Science, California Institute of Technology. Prepared for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review’s Symposium on The Law of Democracy. We thank Jonathan Steinberg and George Waters for their comments on earlier research. We also thank the participants of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review’s Symposium for their comments. The authors can be reached at
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[email protected], respectively. 1 The concept of preservation of “communities of interest” was one of three non- constitutional redistricting principles presented by the plaintiffs in Carstens v.