CA Maid Scandal Leads Spanish-Language News

By Elena Shore,New America Media

LOS ANGELES - The fallout over Meg Whitman's employment of an undocumented housekeeper -- and what it means for the Latino vote -- is leading the news in Spanish-language newspapers and television. An editorial in Monday's La Opinión argues that, in the wake of the Whitman housekeeper scandal, "the problem isn't undocumented workers, but the hypocrisy of those who secretly take advantage of their services and then act horrified by their presence in the country." How the allegations will affect the Latino vote remains the big question. Recent polls present very different pictures of where Latinos stand on Whitman.

A readers' poll on La Opinión's website found that, as of Monday, more than 76 percent said the case of the undocumented housekeeper would take Latino votes away from Whitman. (More than 23 percent said it would not.)

The housekeeper's allegations came between the candidates' first debate in Davis and their second debate, broadcast in Spanish, in Fresno. According to one observer interviewed by Univision Jerry Brown may have come out slightly ahead in Saturday's Spanish-language debate, but there was no clear winner. La Opinión also reported that there was no clear winner in the first debate in Davis.