In California, perhaps more than anywhere else, there’s debate over Latino voters. But a new poll by the LA Times and researchers at USC has found that the state’s Latino voters are still reluctant to embrace the GOP, despite expensive efforts during this election season to lure them in. From the [LA Times:](http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0927-poll-20100927,0,5308121.story) > Registered voters who identified themselves as Latino backed Democrat Jerry Brown by a 19-point margin over Republican Meg Whitman in the race for governor, despite Whitman’s multiple appeals to Latino voters during the general election campaign. Registered voters who identified themselves as white gave Brown a slim 2-point margin. > … > Latino views are keenly watched by political candidates and campaigns because of the state’s demographic march. A 2009 study by the Field Poll found that white voters had declined from 83% to 65% of the electorate in the previous three decades. At the same time, the percentage of Latino voters had almost tripled, to 21%. Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman made headlines this month when she set a [national spending record](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/09/whitman_breaks_spending_record_but_watches_lead_in_polls_shrink.html), pouring $119 million of her own fortune into her run for the state’s top office. A good portion of that money has been poured into [TV ads](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/06/meg_whitman_debuts_spanish_language_ad.html) aimed at Latino voters in the state, presumably in an effort to make them forget about all the [anti-immigrant](https://colorlines.com/archives/2010/07/whitman_keeps_courting_the_latino_vote.html) vitriol she spilled during the primary.