The 2012 Hispanic Voice Town Hall Tour kicks off Jan. 11, 2012

Do Latinos, as a group, have an agenda? Maybe not yet, but they’ll create one in a series of public meetings called the 2012 Hispanic Voice Town Hall Tour. It kicks off Jan. 11, 2012, in Orange County, California.

The event is nonpartisan and, according to 2012 Hispanic Voice founder Glenn Llopis, will be “objective, solution-oriented and forward-thinking.”

According to an announcement, the process is intended to create “a road map that will empower participants to create the broader agenda items for Hispanics in America that are actionable and that support a plan that can be implemented at a local, state and national level.”

City and community leaders will be invited to the meetings, which will be an open public forum. The first event, on Jan. 11, 2012, will be held in the Hoiles Auditorium at The Orange County Register, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana. Register Editor Ron Gonzales will moderate.

Registration is free and online only.

The organization asserts that the 2012 election will be “a defining moment” for Hispanic-Americans.

There’s plenty of evidence that they’re right in the latest political news.

The Democrats
The Obama 2012 campaign has already opened headquarters in three Arizona cities – Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff. According to a report in The New York Times, election strategists for the President now see an opportunity for him in Arizona, which did not support him in 2008, and in fact has not voted for a Democrat in a Presidential election since Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole in 1996.

The Obama team is hoping for a big turnout among Latinos, who now make up more than a third of Arizona’s population. In addition to their historic preference for Democrats, the Democrats are counting on the election in part serving as a referendum on Arizona’s hardline conservative crackdown on illegal immigration.