Lights, camera, activism

The Republican National Committee's efforts to attract Latinos will reach a new threshold on May 20 when the GOP launches a new monthly Spanish-language TV news magazine in selected markets on the Univision and Telemundo cable networks.

Regional events will promote the show's debut in Albuquerque, Denver, Fresno, Las Vegas, Miami, and Orlando. President Bush gathered about a third of the Latino vote in the 2000 campaign, and the RNC is looking for a bigger percentage in 2004, or at the very least hopes to attract the same percentage of a growing population.

Titled Abriendo Caminos (or "forging new paths"), the show will feature a fairly typical public-affairs mix of news about high-ranking federal officials and opinions from Latino community leaders. RNC chairman Marc Racicot says Spanish-language TV is "an effective tool" of Latino outreach, and the committee will spend more than a million dollars producing and promoting the show.