Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday accused Republicans of using Hispanic GOP speakers during the convention in Tampa as "window dressing," while putting forth a platform that doesn't serve the Hispanic community.
"You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and except that people are going to vote for your party, for your candidate," said Villaraigosa during a press conference, alongside Gov. Martin O’Malley (Md.) and former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in Tampa, Fla.
Influential Latinos were chosen by Mitt Romney's campaign to help serve as the public face of the convention.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a home-state favorite, will introduce Romney on the convention’s final night. And Ann Romney will be preceded by Lucé Vela Gutiérrez, Puerto Rico’s first lady, on Tuesday.
Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuño, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval and Texas Senate hopeful Ted Cruz will also speak.
Villaraigosa, the 2012 Democratic convention chairman, also blasted Republicans for holding unrealistic immigration policy positions.
"This is a party with a platform that calls for the self-deportation of 11 million people. I ask you — I know some of you, all of you went to college, many of you are history majors, liberal arts majors. What country in the world has ever deported 11 million people?" he said.
During the press conference, the Los Angeles mayor went on to slam the GOP platform for appearing as if it was designed for "1812," not 2012.
"Those kinds of policies that are so draconian, that don't attempt to fix the challenge that comes with immigration, that divides and polarizes the electorate around issues that frankly, I think they're not well served by that and I think that's a big reason why they're doing so poorly," he said.
Romney has aimed to appeal to Hispanic voters by pushing his economic message. He released a television ad Thursday to convince voters that Obama has failed to create jobs and spur economic growth.
"[I]n the last four years, we've seen that promise fade away. Hispanics are hurting, with so many unemployed, and those who are working, are having to do more with less,"
Romney says in the ad.
The GOP presidential candidate has also showcased his own immigrant roots — his father, George Romney, was born in Mexico, and Romney's son Craig has appeared in campaign ads
speaking in Spanish.
Despite Romney's attempts to win over Hispanic voters, President Obama holds a strong lead among the demographic. Obama led Romney by 63 to 28 percent with Hispanic voters in an NBC News/
Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll released last week.
Villaraigosa
told CNN Tuesday that he predicts Obama will get close to 70 percent of the Latino vote on Election Day.
"I think he is because the Republican Party and Mitt Romney have gone so far to the right on issues that are important to them," said Villaraigosa on CNN.
Read more on the Democrats' press conference in Tampa.
—Cameron Joseph contributed.
