Obama Latinos in Iowa

Support for Senator Barack Obama has been increasing steadily in the early caucus state of Iowa. Primarily, this has been due to the diligent efforts of one Joan Kato. Her efforts are detailed in the following New York Times piece:

By most accounts, Hispanic leaders here say that among the Democrats the Obama campaign has been the most aggressive in reaching out to them.

"We are reaching out to nontraditional people," said Joan Kato, head of Hispanic outreach for the Obama campaign. "We can't expect the voters to come to us, so we are going to them and showing up at events to build trust."

The Obama campaign has sent Ms. Kato and her crew to over 50 Latino events in the state, is lining up Spanish-speaking supporters to work on caucus night, has printed literature in Spanish and English explaining the caucus process and has a Latino steering committee in every region of the state.

"We've been heavily courted by Obama," said Dawn Martinez Oropeza, an activist with the Iowa Allies for Immigration Reform. "Obama has been the only one there right from the beginning — we've gotten V.I.P. tickets to events, he's been on conference calls with Latino leaders and they've always had booths at Latino events. He's tried to make a more personal connection with the community. From the others, we've gotten no invitations to anything."