Governor Tim Kaine Remarks at the 2009 NCLR Annual Conference

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Hi Everybody. Thanks for the invitation to be with you. It’s so wonderful to be here at the National Council of La Raza Annual Conference.

Hola a todos, es un placer estar aqui con ustedes. Me da muchisima alegria estar aqui en la convencion de La Raza compartiendo con tantas caras conocidas.

[Hi everyone, it’s a pleasure to be here with you. I am excited to be here in the NCLR convention, running into so many familiar faces.]

I’d like to begin by thanking Janet Murguía for inviting me to this very special occasion.

As the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., no group does more to activate, engage and improve opportunities for the Latino community than you do.

I’m here today as the Governor of Virginia, where the Latino community is making huge contributions. I’m here as the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, where we have a comprehensive and strong outreach effort to the Latino community. And I’m here as someone who, during law school, spent one of the most rewarding and eye-opening years of my life as a missionary in Honduras.

From that experience, I developed a great respect for the Latino community and the values it holds dear – family, dedication to hard-work, and commitment to the community.

The Latino community is quickly becoming one of the most influential in the entire country. In my commonwealth of Virginia, the first settlers in Jamestown were of Spanish ancestry.

And the demographic is changing. Right now, one in 10 people in Virginia are born outside the U.S.

We have had huge growth in the Latino community in the last 10 years and Latinos are contributing in significant ways. Latinos are continuing to serve in the military, and are making huge contributions on the state level. I believe that diversity in state leadership positions is a big asset – that’s why I’m proud to have appointed Nancy Rodrigues to head the State Board of Elections, among others from the Latino community to various boards and commissions.

I’m proud to say that during my administration, for the first time ever, Virginia maintains bilingual websites for social services agencies.

And, I am so proud of the work we are doing in Virginia to boost achievement in schools:

• More than 87,000 ESOL students in the Commonwealth far outpace English language learners in other states around the country. Right now the National Assessment of Educational Progress – known as “the nation’s report card” – ranks Virginia number one in the nation for fourth-grade reading proficiency by English language learners.
• Virginia’s ESOL program has also made significant strides to improve learning outcomes for English language learners – the Commonwealth now leads the nation in achievement. We took a stand against standardized tests designed for native English speakers, and created alternative tests for English language learners instead. Virginia closed the achievement gap between English language learners and other students from 21 points to 9 points, and improved the pass rate on Standards of Learning tests by non-native speakers by more than 20 percent (from 55 percent to 78 percent) since 2003. Virginia’s English language learners have also improved achievement overall on high school exit exams and national standardized tests.

I’ve been so glad to see the recent work that NCLR has been doing to engage this growing community—particularly in Virginia, the work of the East Coast Migrant Head Start Project, Hispanic Committee of Virginia, Marcelino, Pan, y Vino, Inc. (MAPAVI), and the Shirlington Employment and Education Center (SEEC) has been impressive. I believe Leni Gonzalez, Chair of the SEEC Board and Andres Tobar, SEEC Executive Director are here with us today, so I want to thank them for all their hard work.

You’ve had an extremely successful Nya es hora ¡Ciudadanía! (Citizenship, It’s Time!); and ya es hora ¡Ve y Vota! (It’s Time, Go Vote!).

This is good policy, it’s your right, and in recent years it’s definitely helped my party win important elections.

I think it’s safe to say that President Obama wouldn’t have won Virginia (for the first time since 1964), and wouldn’t have the White House so overwhelmingly without the support of the Latino Community, so I thank you for that.

Your stop the hate campaign has also been incredibly influential.

Your work is pivotal in fighting for the things that matter to us as Americans, and that make our country great. You know, my background is as a civil rights lawyer, and civil rights is what really drives me, even today as a politician and policy maker.

Let me tell you a little bit about what’s going on at the DNC, and how you have helped.

I’ve been at the Democratic National Committee for about 6 months now.

Most of you probably know that I haven’t really been a Washington guy, so I was kind of a surprise choice for DNC chair.

But when the President called and said “Tim, you gotta do this for me”, I accepted because when the President asks you to do something it’s generally a good idea to say, “Yes.” I accepted because he is a friend. I accepted because we share a core set of values about the role government can play in people’s lives and have a similar vision about how our politics should be practiced. And I accepted because I believe in his ability to move this country forward and I wanted to do everything I could to help him.

The President and I have been friends since he came to Virginia to campaign for me when I was running for Governor in 2005. Pretty early on, we realized that we had a lot in common – we both went to Harvard Law School, we were both civil rights lawyers, we both spent some formative time overseas, both of our wives are lawyers and maybe most importantly – our moms are from the same home town: El Dorado, KS. That’s a big deal. We figured we were destined to help each other out in life.

I was the first state-wide official outside Illinois to endorse the President’s candidacy after he jumped into the race. And I was a national co-chair of his campaign. I worked hard to get him elected – just like many of you – because I believe he can be a truly transformative President.

The DNC is also the political arm of the White House. In fact, we are one of the best places to be to help the President pass his agenda to get people back to work and help our economy recover and rebuild.

In fact, that’s one of our primary goals – Presidential success. What can we do every day to help the President be successful? The opportunity to help the President enact his agenda for change is a big reason why I took this job.

The DNC has an extensive operation—highly professional and skilled—that knows how best to engage citizens, volunteers and activists. Specific to the Latino community, we’ve been doing a lot in terms of voter protection to make sure that when Latinos vote, their votes count. We know how important the Latino vote is in key states. Let me give you an example—in Virginia in 2008, Latinos represented 5 percent of the total vote even though they only represent 3 percent of eligible voters statewide. That’s a big difference and is key in elections. And there has been an increase in the numbers of Latinos registering to vote, in part because of NCLR’s efforts to register folks. We’re also engaged in candidate recruitment, to make sure that we have a diverse and strong slate of candidates in all elections, and also so that we’re building the pipeline to higher office.

And at the top levels of the DNC, our senior leadership group is a diverse group, I’m proud to say.

Now the DNC is home to Organizing for America - a new, special grassroots project of the DNC that is dedicated to building grassroots support to pass President Obama’s policy agenda. OFA’s full-time job is to help people make their voices heard in Washington. We’re building an operation in all fifty states. We’re giving folks around the country the tools they need to organize around key issues in their own communities.

The President took office about six months ago. With help from our Democratic leaders in Congress, he’s accomplished more in 6 months than most Presidents accomplish in 6 years, such as:

• Pay equity for women
• Reauthorization of SCHIP
• Passage of a Recovery Act
• And now we’re working on health insurance reform

I also want to reiterate that the President is committed to comprehensive immigration reform—it’s needed, and the wheels are already in motion. The American people want it. Recently the President met with Congressional leaders on this issue, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is heading up a group that’s making sure the process is moving forward.

In the meantime, we’ve made significant administrative progress:

• The FBI is clearing up a backlog of immigration cases.
• DHS and the Department of Labor are cracking down on employers to avoid employee exploitation.
• Citizenship petitions have been moving more quickly through the Department of Homeland Security.
• The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office and other administration officials are working together to create a Web site where applicants can get updates on their status online.
• All this work is needed and is consistent with our foundational values as a country—that we are a nation of laws and of immigrants, and we want to respect that.

Those are a few examples, and we will see more progress in the future. I know this is a priority of you all, it’s a priority for me, and you can be assured it’s a priority of the President.

Right now, the DNC is committing a tremendous amount of energy and resources to passing health insurance reform that supports President Obama’s three principles: lowering costs, guaranteeing choice – including the choice of a public option, and ensuring quality, affordable care for all Americans.

In the past couple of months, Organizing for America and state parties have helped tens of thousands of volunteers in all fifty states share their health care stories, call their Members of Congress, attend health care events, go door-to-door in their communities and call their friends and neighbors to talk about the need for reform.

Health insurance reform is important for everyone, but it’s especially important for Latinos. Nearly one in three non-elderly Latinos lacks health insurance, compared to 17 percent of the total population. Only 39.3% of Latinos were insured by employer-sponsored health insurance, compared to 69.0% for Whites, 48.8% for blacks, and 60.9% for all Americans. And the prevalence of diabetes among Latinos is two times higher than among non-Latino whites. So clearly, the need is great.

In May, with the announcement that Justice Souter would retire, President Obama took on one of his most serious responsibilities as President – the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice.

I don’t think there’s any doubt President Obama selected the right person for the job.

And so today the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

The DNC helped build support for her historic nomination. Thousands of people demonstrated their enthusiasm for Judge Sotomayor’s nomination with help from Organizing for America - they wrote Letters to the Editor, called their senators and shared the facts with their friends and families.

I think we can all agree she did an outstanding job during her hearings a couple of weeks ago.

Judge Sotomayor proved herself to be one of the most able judges of her generation. She is respected for her intellectual prowess, her discipline, her commitment, and integrity. And as the Court’s third woman and its first Latina, she’ll bring more federal judicial experience than any justice in 100 years.

Hay algo mas que hice luego de su nombramiento: Practique mucho mi espaniol durante las entrevistas que hice por television y por radio.

Ya hace 25 (vein-ti-cinco) anios que vivi en Honduras, pero aun recuerdo un poco.

Creo que el esfuerzo valio la pena. La Jueza Sotomayor tiene una historia personal impresionante – ella triunfo ante muchas dificultades. Se crio humildemente y su mama trabajo sumamente duro para darle una buena educación.

Y asi, poco a poco, siguio superandose con sus propios esfuerzos.

Luego de estudiar en una escuela catolica, obtuvo una beca para estudiar en Princeton. Ahi tuvo aun mas dificultades – fue como un mundo nuevo para ella.

Pero trabajo mas y mas, graduandose con altos honores, abriendose su paso hacia la escuela de derecho de Yale, donde edito la revista Yale Law Review. Creo que ya saben como va el resto de su historia.

Luego desempenio un papel excelente en las cortes, y en el dia de hoy esta a solo pasos de ser confirmada a la corte mas alta de nuestra nacion.

Que historia!

Para mi, ha sido un placer apoyar al Presidente Obama en su nombramiento a la Corte Suprema – es parte de lo que hago en el DNC.

El DNC, entre otras cosas, es el brazo politico de la Casa Blanca. De hecho, es uno de los mejores sitios para ayudar al presidente a impulsar sus planes de poner a la gente a trabajar nuevamente y a ayudar a que nuestra economia se recupere.

Y no hay duda, tenemos varias batallas fuertes por delante.

[One more thing we did after her nomination – I got to brush up on my Spanish for a few interviews on TV and radio.

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