Despite spearheading the effort to grant amnesty to millions of illegals in 2006, John McCain lost the Hispanic vote by a margin of 67-31 in 2008. That’s a far cry from the 40% that George W. Bush received in his narrow victory in 2004. Last week, I wrote about the rapid growth of the Hispanic population in a number of crucial swing states. I concluded that the GOP nominee will need a minimum of 35-40% of the Hispanic vote to be competitive in November, and that Marco Rubio offers the best opportunity to get there.

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about recent polling that shows that a Hispanic VP nominee does not help the GOP make up ground with Hispanic voters. Just last week, Public Policy Poling (D) and Project New America teamed up to poll Hispanics in several swing states with large numbers of Hispanic voters.

Recent polling from Project New America and Public Policy Polling suggests that selecting a Hispanic running mate is unlikely to help Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney close the considerable gap he faces with Hispanic voters in a general election.

The polling, conducted from April 16-18 among Hispanic likely voters in Florida, Nevada and New Mexico shows President Obama with a sizable lead over Romney in each of these battleground states…..

After reading that, it’s understandable that so many would be skeptical of the viability of a GOP nominee / Rubio ticket – especially those who have had reservations in the past.

Public Policy Polling is a well known Democrat pollster, who routinely does polling for Daily Kos and SEIU. Until I read this particular poll, I had not heard of the newest member of their team – Project New America, so I decided to do a little digging. They don’t even pretend to be anything other than a liberal think tank. In fact, David Axelrod’s son is the Director of Communications.

Ethan Axelrod
Director of Communications Ethan manages the PNA’s social media operations, shapes media relations and develops content for subscribers. Prior to joining Project New America in May, 2011, Ethan worked for two years as Editor of the Denver section of the Huffington Post, where he wrote about local and regional politics, among other topics. He also worked in the Media Logistics department at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he was part of the team that accommodated the needs of thousands of media members who covered the convention.

Their entire staff is made up exclusively of Democrat strategists and left-wing activists. See for yourself here.

It’s awfully nice of the Obama campaign to warn the GOP against nominating Marco Rubio for VP, don’t you think?

Cross post