Some Latinos who turned out to vote in the Northern Virginia suburbs on Tuesday said they were supporting Democrat Terry McAuliffe for governor because they believed his opponent is anti-immigrant.
Republican Ken Cuccinelli II, Virginia’s attorney general, was pilloried in a Democratic campaign commercial for a remark he made criticizing a D.C. law on pest control, which he claimed prevented the killing of rats.
“It is worse than our immigration policy,” Cuccinelli said in a 2012 radio interview. “You can’t break up rat families . . . and you can’t even kill ’em.”
In a Spanish-language television ad that aired last month, Virginia’s Democratic Party denounced the comment — which Cuccinelli’s campaign said was taken out of context.
“He was talking about how disturbing it was that our laws treat rats better than people, because our laws let us break up immigrant families,” Republican Party spokesman Garren Shipley said.
But judging by interviews with Latino voters on Tuesday, the ad — which aired heavily on Spanish-language television in the weeks leading up to the election — resonated.
“He talks about our community with no respect,” said Umberto Adrian, a Manassas resident who was born in Bolivia and has lived in Virginia for 30 of his 60 years. “I can’t understand why a professional like him would refer to immigrants as if they are not human.”
Some Latino voters who said they were spurred to action by the commercial appeared to have their own interpretations of what Cuccinelli actually said.
“Cuccinelli called Hispanic people rats,” said Mary Alba, 74, a retired bakery worker. “I want people in office who know we need immigrant people. In this country we need people like immigrants, who work hard.”
Pedro Delcid, 40, perceived the remark in a slightly different, but equally derogatory, way. “This man was talking bad about our people. He said we reproduce like rats,” said Delcid, who lives in Manassas. “This is the one issue that brought me here today. I have an issue with the way he talks about immigrants.”
Delcid and his wife Rosa fled a civil war in El Salvador and settled in Northern Virginia more than two decades ago. They said they were also motivated to vote because of the tough ordinance regarding undocumented immigrants that was passed in Prince William County six years ago.
“If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” said Pedro Delcid, owner of a small remodeling company. “Our people felt persecuted. . . . We are tired that they blame us for everything. It’s up to us to make sure the politicians hear that.”
Adrian, who owns a small construction company, said McAuliffe supports issues important to Latinos, including President Obama’s signature health-care law, which Cuccinelli strongly opposes, and immigration reform.
“A lot of Latinos and people of limited resources will benefit from Obamacare,” Adrian said. Even though his own family members are all U.S. citizens, he said he also supports the Dream Act, which allows children who were brought to the United States by undocumented immigrant parents to earn legal residency in the United States.
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