HispanicBusiness

Those numbers have Democrats feeling optimistic, despite the trouncing the party took in Alabama.

"It's hard to win elections when you're demonizing the fastest-growing part of the population," said Bradley Davidson, executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Stewart said the Alabama immigration law didn't by itself sink the Republicans this year. But it was a significant part of the GOP's problem. Just as the controversy over Arizona's immigration law was beginning to wane, he said, Alabama stepped up with an even more stringent bill.

Stewart said he didn't expect Alabama Republicans to suddenly turn away from the immigration law. But he did expect the GOP to let the bill go to a relatively quiet death in the federal court system.

"The most realistic solution is to stop talking in Hispanic terms and let the federal courts get the state out of this jam," he said.

Recruiting

Armistead, the state GOP chairman, said party leaders were "having an ongoing dialogue with folks in Montgomery about the immigration law."

He wouldn't elaborate, except to say that there may be "tweaks" that could still be made.

But Gov. Robert Bentley's representatives have repeatedly signaled that future changes in the law are unlikely.

"The bottom line of Alabama's immigration law is that if you live and work in Alabama, you should do so legally, and we don't expect that to change," said Bentley spokesman Jeremy King, in an e-mailed statement.

The Star's attempts Thursday and Friday to reach Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, and Rep. Micky Hammon, R- Decatur, for comment were not successful. The immigration law, also known as the Beason-Hammon Act, is named after both men, who shepherded it through the Legislature.

Armistead said the Republican message of economic opportunity is a natural fit for both immigrants and the larger Hispanic community. What the party needs, he said, is to do a better job of getting its message out.

"We have some active Hispanics in the party," he said. "I hope we'll have more visibility with them in the future."

But there's no Alabama equivalent of Marco Rubio, the conservative Cuban-American U.S. senator from Florida. Asked whether the state GOP had any Latino members in elected office, Armistead said he couldn't think of one.

Amanda Bosquez, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, said there appeared to be no Hispanic elected officials in the state, in either party, as of January. NALEO does a yearly count; there are about 5,800 people of Latino ancestry in elected office nationwide.

Armistead said there was at least one Hispanic delegate from Alabama at this year's Republican convention in Tampa. He said that delegate, a man from Shelby County, is someone he'd like to recruit for a future outreach effort.

'Huge federal bureaucracy'

Marcelo Munoz said he got a call from Armistead Thursday night, and will meet with him next week to talk about recruiting new voters.

But if the party wants Munoz, they'll have to take him for what he is -- a Ron Paul man.

Munoz was the statewide chair of Paul's Alabama campaign. He's also a member of the Shelby County Republican Executive Committee, and until recently was vice-chairman. He went to the Tampa convention as an alternate delegate.