Obama campaign woos Hispanics with ads

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Her Latin American background is clear in her speech as Lynnette Acosta talks about how President Barack Obama's health care plan could help a diabetic neighbor.

"La familia es bien importante para el presidente Obama. Y el sabe que familias que son luchadores a veces lo han perdido todo porque alguien en la familia se enfermo," Acosta says in an Obama campaign ad. The English translation: "Family is very important to President Obama. And he understands that families that are fighters sometimes have lost everything when someone gets sick."

The upbeat ad starring a Florida resident is one of several such spots the Democrat's team is running on Spanish-language stations in pivotal election states, and it contrasts sharply with the hard-hitting commercials in English that the incumbent is airing against Republican rival Mitt Romney.

With the lighter tone, Obama hopes to shore up what polls indicate is a large lead over Romney among Hispanics -- 61 percent to 27 percent in a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey. They are the nation's fastest growing minority group, usually a reliable Democratic voting bloc that's causing consternation for Republicans looking to the future.

Obama is reinforcing his advantage with a sizable Spanish-language TV and radio ad campaign in some of states expected to be among the most contested in the general election. On this front, he is vastly outspending Romney.

"It makes sense for Obama to run nice ads in Spanish that only Latinos watch. It's a way of saying, 'We're the candidate and the party that respect you,' " said Marc Campos, a Texas-based Democratic strategist who produces campaign commercials targeting Hispanics. "When they see positive, feel-good ads in their native language it reinforces the notion that this administration is working on their behalf."

The Obama campaign has spent $1.7 million since mid-April on Spanish-language ads in Florida, Nevada and Colorado, according to SMG-Delta, a media firm that tracks campaign advertising. Obama carried all three states in 2008; all are closely contested this time.

Romney's campaign, by contrast, has spent just $33,000 on Spanish-language ads in television markets in North Carolina and Ohio. Republican-leaning independent groups spending heavily for Romney in swing states have yet to run general election ads aimed at Hispanics.

While Republicans insist they can make inroads among Hispanic voters with a sharp focus on jobs and the economy, Romney's call for tougher border control measures and his endorsement of a controversial Arizona immigration law during the primaries will make it difficult for him to narrow the gap with Obama among Hispanics, observers say.

But Romney hasn't given up on Hispanic voters. His campaign this past week announced Juntos con Romney, a Hispanic leadership team led by Carlos Gutierrez, commerce secretary under President George W. Bush. "The Hispanic community has been especially hard-hit by President Obama's policies," Gutierrez said in a statement.