Florida Hispanics favor McCain-Palin

Florida Hispanics are going against the national grain in the presidential race, two new surveys show.

A Sun Sentinel-Florida Times-Union poll found that 48 percent of likely Hispanic voters in Florida back Republican presidential candidate John McCain, compared with 41 percent who support Democratic candidate Barack Obama. Ten percent remain undecided.

In contrast, a Pew Hispanic Center poll released Thursday shows Hispanic registered voters across the country favor Obama over McCain, 66 percent to 23 percent. It found that half of all Latinos across the country think the situation has worsened for them over the past year. The reasons: a slumping economy and stepped-up immigration enforcement.

A third poll released Sept. 10 by NDN, a Democratic-leaning, Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found that from 74 percent to 86 percent of Hispanics in four swing states — New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Florida — said the immigration issue was an important factor in their voting decision. Immigration ranked as the eighth-most important issue for all Florida voters; the economy and jobs ranked number one, the newspaper poll shows.