GOP Hopes to Hold on to Florida's Cubans

Arnesto Suarez, left, and Jose Varona protest outside the auditorium where Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois, was giving a speech to supporters during a campaign stop in Miami in this Aug 25, 2007 file photo. Democrats are courting the Cuban-American community with renewed vigor while also using Florida as a platform to reach out to Hispanics nationwide. (AP Photo/David Adame, File) (David Adame - AP)

He also has emphasized his broader Latin-American policy credentials, including trips to the region when he was a venture capitalist, in an effort to reach out to other voters.

Giuliani, whose law firm once represented a subsidiary of Venezuela's national petroleum company, and Romney also have criticized the links between Venezuela's Chavez and Cuba's Castro.

That argument resonates both with Cuban exiles and Florida's burgeoning and well-heeled Venezuelan-American community.

Still, it may not play as well with the broader Hispanic community, which is more concerned about mainstream issues such as the Iraq war, the economy and affordable housing.

"They're still delivering a message to segmented sectors of the electorate. When you go on Univision, you are addressing the entire community, from New York to California," Moreno said. "You're not just addressing the Venezuelan leaders or the Colombian leaders."

And then there is immigration.

All the Republican candidates but McCain opposed a bill that would have provided a path to legalization for the nation's nearly 12 million illegal immigrants, many of them Hispanic.

Yet Democrats still face their own hurdles. The Democratic National Committee recently banned the presidential candidates from campaigning here to punish Florida for leapfrogging its primary to Jan. 29.

Until then, some of the leading Democratic hopefuls had been trying to woo the state's Hispanics _ but like Republicans, their main focus has been on more moderate Cuban-Americans.

(This version CORRECTS SUBS 5th graf to correct number of Hispanics. Multimedia: An interactive look at the 2008 presidential candidates is available in the wdc/early2008 folder.)