UPDATE: After writing this blog, I learned from some of our astute readers that the scenario I outlined cannot happen because Mel Martinez wasn’t born in this country — and perhaps that’s a barrier we will be able to remove at some point down the road. In the meantime, perhaps the GOP can come up with another viable candidate! What do you think?

As we approach Super Tuesday, there is already speculation of possible vice presidential candidates. Can you imagine this possible scenario? If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, there is the possibility that Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey could be on the short list to become her running mate as vice president. If Senator John McCain becomes the Republican nominee, he could tap Senator Mel Martinez of Florida as his vice presidential running mate.

Such a scenario would have been considered a distant dream in the past, but in today’s reality of an increasingly influential Latino vote, this is now possible. If this were to happen, what a show it would be during the vice presidential debate: Robert Menendez vs. Mel Martinez.

How could such a scenario arise? Consider the following:

Menendez is Clinton’s national campaign co-chair. He is also one of the best overall fundraising operatives within the Democratic Party, which is why he was named as the vice chair of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee with the task of raising money for current and potential U.S. Senators in competitive races. Menendez is very popular in the Latino community throughout the United States. The senator’s command of Spanish is stellar and his speaking style has inspirational characteristics that are similar to the speaking style of Senator Barack Obama.

Let me also address the geographic issue. Traditionally, the rule of thumb is to select a president and vice president from different regions of the United States. However, that rule has been broken several times with success. When Bill Clinton was looking for a vice presidential running mate in 1992, he tapped Al Gore despite the fact that Clinton came from Arkansas and Gore came from the neighboring state of Tennessee. In 2000, George W. Bush tapped Dick Cheney even though both of them came from Texas. To avoid a constitutional crisis of having one state with both the president and vice president, Cheney changed his residency from Texas to Wyoming, but he has always been a Texas man. Therefore, the fact that Senator Clinton comes from New York and Senator Menendez comes from New Jersey should NOT be a deterrent to selecting Menendez as a vice presidential candidate.

Additionally, Clinton’s campaign is different from others. As the former First Lady, she has strong name recognition beyond her home state of New York. Menendez also has good name recognition beyond New Jersey. The litmus test for a vice presidential candidate is whether there must be a “get-to-know” period. None is needed if Menendez is tapped. He is already well known especially among Latinos.

Let’s move over to the Republican side. After McCain’s victory in the Florida Primary, it makes him the serious front-runner for the Republican nomination. Florida was the first state in the primary calendar where only Republicans could vote, which is evidence that he could win the support of Republicans and not need independents to win a primary. McCain was endorsed by Senator Mel Martinez, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, all Latino members of Congress from Florida.

If McCain becomes the Republican nominee, those Florida members of Congress may push for Martinez as their pick for vice president and McCain would have to give it serious thought. Additionally, Martinez is the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, which gives him immense influence in lobbying for a vice presidential nomination. His help in getting McCain a victory in the critical swing state of Florida makes him a valuable ally to the candidate. This might be enough leverage to select Martinez as McCain’s vice presidential running mate.

Let’s also consider the other potential strategies that could be reason for a Menendez vs. Martinez vice presidential race. Latinos in general are very angry with the Republican Party for its stance on immigration, particularly when the Republican-led Congress passed HR 4437: The Sensenbrenner Bill in December 2005, which was the most anti-immigrant bill ever passed by Congress in U.S. history. It led to millions of Latinos taking to the streets on April 10, 2006 to protest the passing of the bill in the House and swung many independent and Republican Latinos towards the Democratic Party. The Sensenbrenner Bill never made it to the U.S. Senate due to the immense pressure from Latinos. Republicans lost power in both the House and Senate in the November 2006 election primarily with the help of angry Latinos who mobilized to vote for Democrats. If McCain becomes the Republican nominee, he may tap Martinez in an effort to mend the damage to the Latino community.

As for Clinton, she is very popular with the Latino community in the U.S. She will be looking at certain swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico where a vice presidential nominee could be a significant asset. Those swing states have significant Latino populations and Menendez is a grass-roots senator who knows how to mobilize and inspire voters to come out. Additionally, Menendez voted against the war with Iraq, which would give him the extra ammunition to take on potential rival Martinez in a vice presidential debate on the Iraq war issue. Menendez is very polished and has appeal beyond the Latino community.

We already know that 2008 is like no other presidential election year. It is the most wide open election in over 50 years. Democratic and Republican strategists will likely throw away the playbooks of the 1970’s and 1980’s. This is a different kind of election and it requires a different kind of strategy to win the presidency. A strategy that does not integrate Latinos could be a risky strategy for Democrats and Republicans. There is no easier way for a presidential candidate to demonstrate his/her support for the Latino community than to name a Latino vice presidential candidate.

So if Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain win the Democratic and Republican nominations, respectively, don’t be surprised if we see Senator Robert Menendez vs. Senator Mel Martinez vice presidential nominations. If this happens, YOU HEARD IT FROM CID WILSON FIRST!!!!

Ignore all the pundits, news stories and surveys that proclaim that Hillary or Obama or McCain will be our next president!

Visitors to LatinosNJ.com have spoken and – well, it looks like some of us wouldn’t mind seeing Don Francisco in La Casa Blanca. As of this writing, the poll has Hillary in first place, Don Francisco in second, Obama in third, and Edwards in fourth. (Not one vote has been cast for a Republican candidate. C’mon, we know GOP Latinos are out there!)

So let’s hear it for President Don Francisco! Or would it be President Francisco?

Anyway, I can picture some of you spitting out some of your café con leche or cervezita as you read this. But think about it. If Ronald Reagan could live on Pennsylvania Avenue, why not Don Francisco?

After all, who’s has been a fixture in the lives of Latinos for decades? Don Francisco!

Who can bring together family, friends, young, old, ex-lovers, and enemies on Saturday nights (and often all in the same room!) to watch Sábado Gigante and the half-naked gyrating women? Don Francisco!

And don’t think Latinos only look to Don Francisco for some cheap entertainment (and, listen up, it’s estimated Sábado Gigante was seen in 90 percent of Latino homes by 2002 when he marked 40 years in television!).

Check out his web page on the Univision site and see who is writing to him and on what issues. His fans want him to solve their immigration problems, find missing people, help them with their financial problems – as well as give their abuelitas a shout out on the program.

Our people worship him!

I think many Latinos can relate to this comment posted on his site:

Mi abuelita tiene 82 anos y ha sido una gran seguidora de el programa por casi 22 anos desde su comienzo en Univision. Ella nunca sale los Sabados por la noche porque su mayor diversion es quedarse en casa para verlo a usted por la television. Desde que yo recuerde, ella y yo siempre nos hemos sentado a ver su programa– bailamos y cantamos junto con todos ustedes. Mi abuelita ya tiene edad avanzada y su mayor sueño es ir a ver su programa.

That strikes a bell, right? I remember spending many Saturday nights well into my adult years watching Sábado Gigante with mi querida madre and I still turn it on because it brings back memories of those evenings when we laughed together at the ridiculous antics on the show.

And listen up Barack, Hillary, both Johns, Rudy and the rest of the crew: You have nothing on Don Francisco when it comes to speaking about what matters most to people.

Here’s what he said during a 1995 newspaper interview: “If you scratch a little under the surface you will find people are similar everywhere, even if they look from the outside completely different. There are differences in color, in religion, in culture, but everybody wants a good life, they want to build a family, they want to have a job and be successful, even in the Communist countries.”

Don Francisco for President!

When I recently pitched Latina magazine, I met Natasha, a woman who grew up believing she was Irish and then learning at 15 that her biological father was Costa Rican. She had said she had to “learn” how to be Latina – both on a personal and societal sense.

Though I grew up in an ethnic environment with parents proud of their Cuban heritage, my Israeli-American friend Elan was the one who taught me how to be a proud Latina.

Growing up in the 99 percent Hispanic Union City in northern New Jersey, I took my identity for granted. The majority of students at my alma mater, Union Hill High School, were Dominican, but there were some Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Central and South Americans. The only non-Latinos were three Italian-American students and the majority of teachers, who were white. It was a given that most everyone spoke Spanish, had café con leche and pan con mantequilla for breakfast, and danced to salsa and merengue. But then I went to college, where I was exposed to students and professors from diverse ethnic backgrounds and I was no longer in the “majority.”

I met Elan seven years ago during our freshman year at Rutgers. I would usually read and study in the fourth-floor community lounge in Tinsley, a freshman dorm on College Avenue Campus. Elan, who lived on the first floor, began dating a girl who lived four doors down from me and would study in our lounge.

“How would you say this phrase in Spanish?” a fair-skinned brunette girl named Hannah asked me, pointing to a sentence in a book. After I responded, the blond-haired, blue-eyed Elan looked up and asked me a question in his accented Spanish. I don’t remember what he said, but I remember being shocked that someone from a completely different cultural background took such an interest in my native language. I practiced Spanish with him, and told him about Cuban foods and customs. He taught me about the Jewish faith and Israeli culture. The more I learned from him, the more I wanted to learn not just about Cuban issues, but the histories and cultures of all Latin American countries — and I have been doing just that.

And so in learning about other cultures, I’ve become even prouder of mine. And that all began with a conversation I once had with someone named Elan.

The most frequent question I am asked, after “Where are you from?”, is “How many languages do you speak?” The answer is three – English, Spanish, and Ukrainian. My Ukrainian is basic conversational and it’s nothing to brag about. This is a popular question, however, because Ukrainians are language learners.

In Ukraine, a large number of schools offer foreign languages as early as the first grade — in addition to the state language, Ukrainian, and the popular language, Russian. Whether or not every student learns the language is another story, but I believe that the leaders in the Ukrainian Educational System understand and have prioritized the importance of foreign languages. The truth is that knowing another language and speaking to people from other cultures gives us a greater perspective on issues in the world and, in turn, makes us better global citizens.

I am not an experienced world traveler. I have only traveled to a handful of countries in the Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. But my travels have given me a different perspective on people’s languages. Traveling from Germany to Ukraine and to Turkey and Egypt I noticed people’s fluidity in their ability to speak English. It is possible to find someone who speaks English in any of the countries where I visited. It might be harder in one country than another, but if you try hard enough, you can. And this speaks volumes for the English language.

Looking back at my education, I guess I didn’t fully understand the meaning of English being the business language of the world; it could have been easier if the professor said that English is the closest thing to a universal language. However, just because English is spoken in many cities around the world doesn’t mean that we should lower our guard and restrict ourself only to English. Even with my limited knowledge of the Ukrainian language people are enthusiastic when I do speak to them in their own language. Quite often, I get a sense of appreciation because I am respecting their culture and tradition by speaking it.

During high school and college I was required to take at least two courses on a second language. I chose Spanish, not because (as conventional thinking would have it) it would be an easy “A” since I already spoke the language, but because I needed to improve my writing skills. I am still trying to improve my writing skills because two years of language was not enough. And if I decided to study a new language I know that two semesters in high school and college would not have been enough to learn it.

In Ukraine, I now teach English to 10^th and 11^th graders. I do this about two times a week (students attend five English lessons a week) because I am impressed with their desire to learn. These students are eager to learn and more eager to participate in world’s affairs and the world’s economy. And their language abilities empowers them to think globally and pursue their goals.

In short, from my observation I realized that learning a second or third language is extremely important in today’s and tomorrow’s world. I would like to see the American educational system raise its standards and demand more of students because the more I travel the more people I meet who speak multiple languages and have an unique ability to connect with me and my friends. Learning another language gives us the ability to understand people from different cultures and perspective and, at the same time, it makes us better global citizens.

When I was small there were a few things that made breakfast worth getting up for. First, was my mother Carmen’s oversized Aunt Jemima pancakes; these were so big that when rolled-up, they could be used for batting practice. Second, was Carmen’s Puerto Rican oatmeal (Avena); it was like eating hot ice cream.

Carmen’s Avena Recipe

3 cups Quaker Oats
Half a cup of sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups of milk
1 cup of water

In a medium sauce pan, mix all ingredients thoroughly. Then place on stovetop on medium/low heat, stirring constantly. Stir until Avena thickens to a smooth and creamy consistency. Top with cinnamon powder and eat hot.

Those were the good memories and I will share many with you as a blogger. There were other memories I have of growing up in Newark and Elizabeth. Memories of Christmas in the Dayton St. Projects, summers in North Newark, being physically attacked in elementary and middle school by gangs. Hearing teachers assure students they would go nowhere in life.

I think back to the Dayton St. Projects and wonder how anyone could have made it out alive. A walk to the Dayton St. School only three blocks away was like an excursion through a wasteland, without protection from the elements. Between home and school anything could happen and sometimes did. The tall dark red brick buildings cast a shadow upon the earth that followed you everywhere; they frustrated the sun’s attempt to shine light upon the concrete floor. The eighth floor where we lived overlooked the Evergreen Cemetery — a huge expanse of death and finality. No matter where you looked, one could find a “dead end.”

As a Boricua whose family subsisted on welfare and government benefits, Dayton St. was a place people wanted to live in. It was subsidized housing and really the only thing our family could afford. “Los Proyectos” — as the Boricuas called them — were prime real estate. Many of us adapted to the environment and learned survival skills that we use to this day.

We learned that survival and promotion — like in the work world — sometimes depends on who you know. My family knew Carlos my first cousin and everyone on Dayton St. knew Carlos — the drug dealer and eventual user. He loved his family and people knew that, but most importantly respected that. He would do anything for his family but eventually could not do anything for himself. He died of AIDS from sharing needles for his heroin addiction.

We learned that parents can hold together a family regardless of where you live or who your neighbors are. They can also teach you to be tough in an unforgiving neighborhood. Lesson number one: If you get hit you hit back! Lesson number two: See lesson number one. There were constant struggles between African-Americans and Puerto Ricans and neither wanted to seem weak. So we fought. Sometimes we got our asses kicked and sometimes we didn’t. Either way you got respect. My best friends in the projects were people who I had gotten into fights with. People who you could trust because one way or another we were in this together.

We learned that school was a great place to meet people from other places — white people. The fifth and sixth grades were great at Dayton St. School because we had the same teacher, Ms. Schimmel. Before her I did not know who Jewish people were or their stories. She showed us other cultures and took us on class trips, to fossil sites, foundries and even a picnic in Weequahic Park. I think she was the first teacher to believe in us. That was her best lesson.

So many things I can say about growing up in Dayton St. It was the kind of place that either killed you or made you stronger. But at the end of the day it was our home. The place where my mother made Avena and huge pancakes. The place where I went to summer camp with the Boy Scouts and where a girl named Peanut and I made out on the roof.

As you can see from my last entry, it has been a while since I last wrote on this blog. You can say I have been having a little bit of writer’s block, which I have concluded happened because I just couldn’t put the right kind of words together to express the feelings of “electoral frustration ” I am having with the presidential campaigns. Since Iowa, then New Hampshire, Nevada and now South Carolina, I have watched how real issues are becoming second place to “race and gender” spins calculated by the Clinton campaign and propagated by the media.

But a story last night on CNN spoke about the reality: Black women voters in South Carolina are more concerned about the issues that impact them (i.e., the economy, health care) than about the race or gender of the candidate. At last, I said, somebody is talking to real voters … are Clinton and Obama listening?

While President Bush and Congress try to put together an economic package to jumpstart the economy, the two main presidential candidates are engaged in a tug of war as to who is really making history, a woman or a black candidate. Meanwhile, the only candidate with a real plan to change the economy for middle-class Americans, John Edwards (the not so historic candidate because he is a white Anglo-Saxon male), barely gets an opportunity to highlight how his plan would really jumpstart opportunities for working people and end the health care crisis of this country.

And we do have a crisis in health care! Just here in our Garden State, we have more than 1 million residents who are uninsured (almost 48 million people nationally) and more and more hospitals everyday are closing because they cannot get reimbursements for all the charity care they have to provide to poor working Americans. The closings of the two hospitals in Newark highlight a growing trend in our state: Hospitals who serve poor people in working class neighborhoods cannot afford to provide health care to citizens anymore.

What is the solution? What are cities like Newark to do when hospitals close? No one really has an answer…those should be the real type of issues candidates should be addressing when they visit our state. Or, in this case, those should be the right kind of questions we voters should be asking of them every time they show up in our backyard claiming to be the real candidates for change.

Latinos, just like African-American women in South Carolina, do care about the issues more than they care about the race and gender of the candidate. But while Clinton can depend on her popularity (and that of her husband) to get the majority of the Hispanic vote, her actions in Nevada demonstrated that she cannot ignore our issues because Hispanics are also listening to Obama, and some to Edwards. In Las Vegas, she went to war with the Culinary Union when the union decided to start talking to its mostly immigrants members about Obama’s record for working families. And yet, Obama has a lot to learn about putting together a national campaign to reach out to Latino voters.

We have a lot of time left to keep demanding answers from our candidates. In that regard, I decided my frustration should be turned into action to get voters to vote on our primary day on February 5th. At the end of the day, it does not matter who we individually vote for because by voting our conscious we will remind Clinton, Obama, Edwards and the Republican candidates that our issues matter, not just our race or gender.

And if you do get a call from any of the candidates to remind you to vote on Tuesday, Feb 5th, PLEASE do ask them what they plan to do about our health care crisis. Let’s make that the issue to debate in this presidential campaign!

On Tuesday, January 15, I flew to Las Vegas to attend the Democratic Presidential Debate on Black-Brown Issues. The candidates that attended were New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Tim Russert (NBC’s Meet The Press) and Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News) were the moderators of the debate and it aired live on MSNBC. The debate was sponsored by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Coalition of 100 Black Men, and many other prominent African-American and Latino organizations.

When the debate concluded, I was scratching my head like many others who were in attendance. Was this really a debate on black-brown issues? While the debate certainly touched upon a few issues such as Dr. Martin Luther King, the mortgage crisis and on immigration reform, I would estimate that less than one-third of the questions asked by the moderators were specifically geared towards an African-American and Latino audience. It was almost as if NBC forgot (or decided to ignore) the black-brown theme of the debate and, instead, moderate the debate as if NBC was still catering to an Iowa or New Hampshire audience.

There were a couple of times when members of the audience yelled out “what about the black-brown issues?”. Even Senator Clinton, in answering a question from NBC’s Brian Williams, said “I thought this was a debate on black-brown issues,” which was an acknowledgement that NBC did not do their part to moderate with questions that were on the minds of African-Americans and Latinos.

The issues of jobs and small business in the inner cities were scantily covered. The issue of the DREAM Act for our undocumented children got no attention. Neither did the increase in fees charged by the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service get attention. The debate of English as an official language (something most Latinos oppose) never get a real debate. Only John Edwards answered it in the context of immigration reform. What about affirmative action, job training for people of color? What about the challenge of high drop-outs in our community? These were issues that were either not discussed at all, or not nearly discussed enough by the candidates because NBC would not let the candidates do so.

This is not to say that African-Americans and Latinos do not care about the energy problem, because we do. But when the NBC moderators spent more time on the question of whether to build more nuclear power plants and less time on immigration reform and access to higher education, I think that the NBC moderators forgot that the audience had a different priority scale compared to theirs or that of NBC.

There was even a point when Sen. Clinton was answering a question regarding the sub-prime mortgage crisis and when the NBC moderators tried to end the discussion, Sen. Clinton interrupted them and said “hold on, we need to discuss this further because this is a black-brown issue.” What Sen. Clinton really did was interrupt the consistent defiance of NBC to steer the debate away from black-brown issues and helped them bring it back to what the audience really wanted to discuss. Thank you Sen. Clinton!!!!

NBC really missed an opportunity here. This was the first time that the candidates were asked to debate on issues facing the common challenges in both the African-American and Latino communities. It was also the first time the candidates could address Latino issues to the millions of English language-dominant Latinos who may have not been able to comprehend the all-Spanish Univision debates last year.

I commend the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Coalition of 100 Black Men, and the many other organizations that played a role in organizing this important debate. As for NBC, I only wish that the next time there is a debate on black-brown issues, NBC (or any other network) should have black-brown people moderating the debate since they would probably do a better job at moderating such a debate. If they don’t want to do it, I’m sure CNN would be happy to televise such a debate.

By the way, I hope we have a similar black-brown debate with the Republican candidates. We cannot let them off the hook.

I was carrying half a tuna salad sandwich on challah bread while standing on the platform at 2:09 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. I was waiting for the E train to head to the East Village. I wasn’t going to a posh party in the city, though I looked festive and stood out in my black and blue polka-dot dress, a top hat with a countdown clock on it and a glittery 2008 sticker on my face. Instead, I was heading to my Professor Sue’s apartment to discuss my progress on some writing projects.

While waiting for the train, my stomach rumbled and my brain wandered. “What if I don’t get accepted to grad school? What if there is a recession in 2008 and I somehow lose my job? What if I can’t make the car/credit card/loan payments?” I thought.

At 2:13, the train appeared, screeching to a halt. I was pleasantly surprised to find a big, empty row on the train. But when I stepped in and smelled the stench, I knew why that whole row was empty. A homeless man in tattered clothes was sitting across from the empty row, and passengers, some covering their noses, would rather stand than sit anywhere near him. He reeked of urine and looked like he hadn’t showered in weeks, perhaps months. His gray hair was matted, oily and dirty. He hungrily eyed a passenger’s McDonald’s bag and asked, “Could I have some?”

“Nah man, I just bought this,” the young Hispanic male responded. He immediately pulled five $1 bills and gave it to the homeless man. “Here you go. Hope that helps,” the man in his 20s said before departing the train.

There are many causes – ranging from the ASPCA and diabetes to suicide prevention and eating disorders groups– that I have donated to. Though it feels good to cut checks to worthwhile organizations, it is also very impersonal. I don’t see the abused animals, or meet families of suicide victims when I send my $25 or $50. Here was my chance to help, to do something for someone less fortunate. My thinking shifted. I focused less on my problems and became grateful I have a warm house to sleep in, food in the stove and family that cares about my well-being.

I glanced at the man on my left who was wearing a gray-colored hat with the words “Jesus is my Boss” etched on them. That gave me an idea.

With tears clouding my vision, I extended the white paper bag containing the tuna salad with carrot shavings and chives to the man. “Here you go. Sit. It’s a tuna sandwich,” I said, trying not to cry. “Thank you,” he said appreciatively. Though it was nice to hear, his “thank you” wasn’t necessary for me to know that I did the right thing.

On Tuesday, February 5, I plan to get up, make my café con leche, feed La Gata (aka La Gorda de Oro) before she gets too cranky, skim the headlines and perhaps read a story or two about how Latinos feel they don’t catch a break, and – oh yeah – go cast my vote in the presidential primary.

What are you planning to do?

If you’ve been following the news these last few days, you saw how the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire managed to mix things up. One day, Obama and Huckabee are the champs. A few days later, McCain is on top of the heap and Hillary, after drying her tears, is a happy camper. (And, by the way, did you catch the Florida Latino legislators who went up to stump for Huckabee in New Hampshire, handing out oranges and probably freezin’ their you-know-whats?)

Well, fellow Latinos, I say let’s join in on the fun and get out there on February 5.

Hey, what are you saying? You don’t have the time or the inclination to do so? As my dear mother used to say - Carambola!

There is almost no excuse for not getting out there and playing a part in a historical race that features an African-American, a woman, a Latino (yes, my friends, our dear Bill Richardson is still plugging along and I salute him for doing so!), a Mormon, and the rest of the crew.

(UPDATE: Just hours after I posted this blog, Gov. Richardson dropped out of the race.  Gracias Governor for all your efforts and for making us proud!)

So here’s the deal, provided you’re 18 and a U.S. citizen. If you haven’t registered to vote, you have until Tuesday, January 15. You can download an application from the state website (see below) or just go in person to your county office, which will stay open until 9 pm on Tuesday.

If you’re already registered but you won’t be around to vote or you won’t have the time for WHATEVER reason, you have until January 29 to file for an application by mail for an absentee ballot. And you have until February 4, 3 p.m., to apply in person at the county clerk’s office for an absentee ballot.

And one last piece of information: It’s too late to switch party affilations so you won’t be able to vote for a Republican if you’re a Democrat, and vice versa. However, if you’re not affilated with either party, you can choose a party on Primary Day and vote.

Anyway, all of the information you need can be found at: http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/electionshome.html

So, what d’ya say? Let’s get out there and show this state and the rest of the country that Latinos in New Jersey care enough to make a difference.

Let’s have some serious fun.

For the first time in the history of New Jersey, we have three Latinos who were sworn-in as County Freeholder Chairman/Chairwoman. In Bergen County, Tomas J. Padilla was sworn-in as Freeholder Chairman. In Passaic County, Sonia Rosado was sworn-in as Freeholder Director, which is the equivalent of the Chairman title in other counties. Both Padilla and Rosado were sworn into their positions on January 3, 2008. On January 6 in Union County, Angel G. Estrada was sworn in as Freeholder Chairman.

A Freeholder Chairman/Chairwoman commands immense influence in the policies in their respective counties. If you are not familiar with the title of the County Freeholder and wish to better understand the role and the history of the position, I recommend you visit the Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Chosen_Freeholders. Having three Latinos lead their County Freeholder boards is a political achievement that all of us should be proud of.

So 2008 appears to be off to a great start for Latinos in New Jersey from a political standpoint. In addition to the freeholders, we have other Latino newcomers being sworn into office, including Teresa Ruiz who will be sworn-in as the first ever Latina State Senator in the history of the Garden State tomorrow (January 8). As the population of Latinos grow in New Jersey, so has our political power. Please join me in congratulating all of our Latino leaders who have made the commitment to serve publicly their local constituencies as well as our statewide community.