Facing a barrage of Spanish-language advertising from Republican Meg Whitman, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown was joined by Latino legislators and community leaders at Laney College in Oakland Thursday to tout his history supporting causes dear to the state's growing Latino community.
The guest list included state Senate Majority leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, and various city officials from around the Bay Area.
Their message: Whitman's Latino outreach isn't producing dividends.
"He was the first to create the Labor Relations Act," Florez said. "He was the first to embrace Cesar Chavez. He was the first to stand with farmworkers when it wasn't popular."
Brown delivered a variation of his standard stump speech, stressing creating green jobs but not spending much time on Latino-specific issues.
"We're going to turn this breakdown into a breakthrough," Brown said. "Real change, not bought change, not marketing propaganda."
After the speech, Brown told reporters he didn't think Whitman was making many inroads in the Latino community.
Whitman spokesman Hector Barajas thought otherwise, saying surveys show Whitman winning more than 30 percent of the state Latino vote, which would be a strong showing for a Republican. The Whitman campaign touted a letter from Democratic state Sen. Gloria Romero praising Whitman for opening a campaign office in East Los Angeles.
"People don't care that you marched with Cesar Chavez 40 years ago," Barajas said. "People want to know what you're going to do now."
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