Dem pollster predicts Hispanic voters to stay home

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake says her party will have a tough time getting out the Hispanic vote, because President Obama did not take executive action on deportations affecting millions of workers in the U.S. illegally.

“It was a real disappointment to the Latino voters — rightly so,” Lake told The Hill in a one-on-one interview. “I think if we’d done something, it would have energized the Latino vote and drawn a clear distinction with the Republicans.”

{mosads}The veteran pollster insists that voter turnout is the key for Democrats if they want to hold onto their Senate majority.

With Hispanic voters down in the dumps over immigration, she says it will be “a big uphill battle for the Latino turnout, and that’s going to affect our candidates.”

The White House put off executive actions on immigration, including changes that might have slowed deportations, as part of an effort to keep the Senate in Democratic hands.

Lake contends that Obama bowed to nervous Democratic candidates locked in tough election battles in red states — and that the president got bad advice.

“I think [the President] was deferential to a number of candidates who were lobbying him not to do it. I think those candidates were absolutely mistaken in their assessment,” she said.