ES MOINES - Texas Governor George W. Bush, who has staked his reputation as the clear GOP front-runner on winning next week's Republican straw poll in Ames, yesterday unveiled what he hopes is his secret weapon of support here: the state's small but active Hispanic community.
''I don't know if this has ever been done in Iowa before,'' Bush said at a meeting with a few dozen Hispanic voters here. ''I want your vote.''
While only about 53,000 out of Iowa's nearly 3 million people are of Hispanic origin, Bush spent an hour yesterday in a Holiday Inn conference room in Des Moines meeting with Hispanics, including community leaders and more than a dozen workers from the hotel.
The state's Hispanic population has been growing quickly, largely because of a labor shortage, indicated by a 2.5 percent unemployment rate. Many of the new arrivals come from Texas and Florida, where Bush and his brother, Jeb, are governors.
''I am going to make an active effort to reach out to the Hispanic community,'' said Bush, who switched between English and Spanish in his remarks. ''I did so in the state of Texas, and I am going to do so in the state of Iowa and in other states. I am trying to broaden the base of the Republican Party.''
Bush aides dismissed suggestions that the governor was trying yesterday to make amends with the Hispanic community for his failure to show up last month at a Texas meeting of leading Latino organizations called La Raza or at a Corpus Christi meeting of the League of United Latin American Citizens. In both cases, Bush said he had scheduling conflicts. Bush's meeting yesterday was open to the news media, highlighting an effort by the campaign to publicize the candidate's relationship with the Hispanic community. A Bush aide denied reports that the meeting was opened only at the last minute.
There is no doubt that Bush has strong support from Hispanics in Texas. In his 1998 reelection, Bush received 41 to 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, according to exit surveys, an extraordinarily high number for a Republican. Bush's strategy for winning the nomination and the general election rests significantly on continuing to get strong support from Hispanics.
It is difficult to gauge the depth of Bush's support among Hispanics in Iowa. At yesterday's event, perhaps 30 Hispanic leaders and a dozen hotel workers listened to Bush as the candidate stood under a sign that said ''Un Nuevo Dia'' - A New Day.
The Rev. Roberto Mendez, of the Rivers of Living Water Church, said Bush can count on significant Hispanic support. Mendez, recently from Florida, said many people in the community are familiar with Bush and are pleased with his immigration policies.
Bush did not break any new ground in his discussion with Hispanics, but he promised to ''revisit'' the question of whether undocumented immigrants should be given the right to become citizens.
When a woman in the audience asked Bush about his immigration policy, the candidate responded in general terms that ''the dream is meant for everybody.''
