The ads are produced by PowerPAC, a national, non-profit organization aimed at increasing civic participation among young people and people of color. PowerPAC also endorses candidates and has funded independent campaigns supporting Barack Obama since the primary election.

“The Southwest is clearly the critical battleground of the 2008 election, and we know that we cannot win the Southwest without winning a significant portion of Hispanic voters,” said PowerPAC Chairman Steve Phillips. PowerPAC’s Southwest strategy includes running ads and identifying and training rising Hispanic leaders not only in New Mexico but in Colorado and Nevada as well. Those three states, which Kerry lost in 2004 by a combined 127,000 votes, have more than 1 million eligible Hispanic voters. Had Kerry won New Mexico, Colorado, and Nevada, he would have captured the Presidency even without carrying Ohio and Florida.

PowerPAC’s strategy is informed by lessons from 2004 and the writings of the Coronado Project, a national effort calling for a new Democratic focus on Hispanic voters in the Southwest. Lorena Chambers, a co-founder of the Coronado Project, worked with PowerPAC to create the ads in both English and Spanish.

The English-language ad is called “What Matters.” The ads carry cultural cues that resonate with the Hispanic community, and will help fill a current void in pro-Obama television media targeting this population. They touch on themes of family, and the value of education and hard work, which are the cornerstones of the Hispanic community in New Mexico.

To view or download the ad in English and Spanish, please go to:

http://www.powerpac.org/LatinoMedia/