Latinos and Asians in the 2005 Mayoral Race in Los Angeles.

How does one explain the diverging voter preferences of Latinos and Asian American voters in the 2005 Mayoral election in Los Angeles? Some posit that Latino support for Villaraigosa was driven by a desire of Latino voters to elect a co-ethnic candidate. Hahn's support among Asian Americans was most often attributed to active mobilization of the Asian American community by the Hahn campaign. We show that these explanations are incomplete. Moreover, popular explanations of Latino vote choice present an oversimplified portrait of the group's voting behavior because they tend to be preoccupied with the role of racial cues at the expense of considering other factors, such as rational candidate evaluation. Co-ethnic voting among Latinos certainly provides some explanation for the patterns observed in 2005. But there were other factors influencing Latino vote choice left largely unexamined by observers. We also contend that mobilization mattered for the Asian Americans' support for Hahn, but not in the manner assumed by most pundits and reporters. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]