Los Angeles, CA — Continuing its tradition of publishing the definitive source of information on Latino elected officials, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund released its annual 2007 National Directory of Latino Elected Officials, along with a profile of their progress since 1996.
“The 2007 Directory againprovides a useful resource to identify Latino elected leaders and to document the growth of Latino representation in our democracy,” said NALEO Educational Fund Senior Director of Policy, Research and Advocacy, Rosalind Gold. “Our analysis shows that the number of Latino elected officials has climbed steadily over the past eleven years, with significant increases in regions outside the traditional centers of Latino population. This is just one sign that Latino political empowerment is an emerging reality in communities across the United States, from the Southwest, to the Midwest, to the South, to New England, and everywhere in-between.”
This year marks the twenty-third year that the NALEO Educational Fund has compiled and disseminated a comprehensive enumeration of Latino elected officials throughout the nation. The Directory includes the following information:
- The names and the addresses of the nation’s Latino elected officials;
- The levels of government they represent; and
- Their political affiliation where available.
The Profile of Latino Elected Officials in the United States and their Progress since 1996
[ click here] provides a comparison of the number of Latino elected officials at different levels of office between 1996 and 2007. The Profile also provides comparable data on the state, gender and partisan affiliation of the elected officials. The Profile’s findings include:
- There has been a 37% increase in the total number of Latinos serving in elected office – from 3,743 in 1996 to 5,129 in 2007.
- At the highest levels of office, there has been an even greater increase, with the number of Latinos serving in federal and state legislatures growing by more than 50%.
- Between 1996 and 2007, the number of Latina elected officials grew faster than the number of male Latino officials – the number of Latinas increased by 74%, compared to 25% for male Latinos. As a result, the female share of all Latino elected officials grew from 24% in 1996 to 31% in 2007.
- There has been a significant increase in the number of Latinos representing jurisdictions outside of the traditional areas of Latino population concentration (142.1%), with Latinos serving in 43 states in 2007, up from 34 in 1996. There are now Latino elected officials serving in nine states - Alaska, Georgia, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia - where eleven years ago there were none.
Those interested in obtaining a copy of the Directory should contact Evan Bacalao of the NALEO Educational Fund by phone at (213) 747-7606, ext. 116, or by e-mail at ebacalao@naleo.org.
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