SOUTHWEST VOTER DEMANDS APOLOGY
FROM HAHN CAMPAIGN OVER FABRICATED CHARGES
Los Angeles, CA– Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), the nation’s oldest non-partisan, non-profit voter registration organization, released the following letter to Los Angeles City Mayor James K. Hahn’s campaign demanding an immediate apology from his campaign for the baseless and fabricated charges made by one of his campaign officials in a Los Angeles Times article.
“SVREP demands that your campaign reprimand Mr. [Kam] Kuwata for his false statements and your campaign issue an immediate apology to SVREP and to the hundreds of volunteers who work tirelessly to empower Latinos at the voting booth,” wrote Antonio Gonzalez, SVREP’s president. “SVREP was not created to assist any single candidate or political party. Who wins the mayoral contest is of no consequence to SVREP. Who votes in the mayoral contest is what matters.”
The full text of the letter follows.
May 12, 2005
The Honorable James K. Hahn
Hahn for Mayor 2005 Campaign
5518 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Dear Mayor Hahn:
As president of Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP), I take strong issue with the irresponsible public accusations made by your campaign strategist, Kam Kuwata, in the May 7 Los Angeles Times article entitled “Group’s Voter Registration is Questioned”. These accusations are patently false, and I demand that your campaign reprimand Mr. Kuwata for his false statements and your campaign issue an immediate apology to SVREP and to the hundreds of volunteers who work tirelessly to empower Latinos at the voting booth.
SVREP, a national non-partisan, non-profit organization, has a sterling reputation of empowering Latinos and other underrepresented communities. Your strategist's statements display either an ignorance of basic voter registration techniques or demonstrate a bias against empowering Latinos to make their own voting decisions.
As a long-time political operative, Mr. Kuwata should know that you cannot register voters by telephone. SVREP, with over 30 years of registration experience, provides its voter registration project personnel with several hours of training, including specific instructions to register all persons, regardless of race, ethnicity, political affiliations or preferences, when they are out in the field conducting voter registration drives. SVREP staff rigorously monitors its voter registration projects on a daily and weekly basis.
SVREP also assisted the William C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI) in conducting a poll to determine the pulse of the Latino electorate on key election issues and preferences. WCVI sponsored a poll of recently registered Latino voters in Los Angeles. Latino voters were asked in sequence (1) whether they would be voting; (2) if they planned to vote by mail; and (3) for whom the registered voter intended to vote in the upcoming election.
Upon reading Mr. Kuwata’s charges, we launched an immediate investigation. We inspected the telephone database, provided to us from Political Data, Inc. and did not find Rolando Cuevas name in the database.
As a long-time SVREP supporter, you've appeared at a number of our annual dinners and spoken before SVREP audiences. You have supported SVREP's activities in Los Angeles and across the country. Mayor Hahn, you know better, and should not allow your campaign staff to make such baseless accusations. SVREP was not created to assist any single candidate or political party. Rather, SVREP remains a significant force in registering Latinos and other minorities and encouraging them to exercise their right to vote. Who wins the mayoral contest is of no consequence to SVREP. Who votes in the mayoral contest is what matters.
I look forward to your personal, immediate response.
Sincerely,
ANTONIO GONZALEZ
President
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
