Sparks, NV – As Mitt Romney’s campaign pulls its cash out of North Carolina — confident of a victory there with polls showing a 5-point lead — the attention of both candidates focuses tighter on the eight remaining swing states.
In Nevada, where President Obama is up 3 points, the Latino vote will be key — as we explained here. Latinos comprise 13 percent of the electorate there and 19 percent of Latinos are voting Republican, says the Latino Decisions poll.
Team Obama has upped its ground game in the all-important Reno/Sparks area. They’re canvassing churches, Latino markets, clubs where young people hang out — any place to turn up more voters.
Here’s one I met while in Sparks a while back. Naomi Bermudez Hopkins is a single mom who raised her kids — while going back to school to become an electrician. She’s never been active in politics before, but got upset by the endless drone of political TV ads there, some of which she felt were disparaging Obama.
As part of our Voices of the West series of video blogs, here courtesy of The San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com’s Shaky Hand Productions is our chat with Naomi: