You’ve seen the tango moves — a couple in closed position, one strongly leading, the other smoothly following, both anticipating the dip that will either be elegant and graceful or tumble one of them onto the dance floor with a resounding crack to the head. 

Now envision the political equivalent.

Last week saw two local political leaders with national reputations announce that they have chosen Latinos to partner with in 2015 election and reelection campaigns. Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced on July 15 that Rep. Luis Gutierrez would be joining his reelection campaign as co-chairman. Several days later, on July 17, Charlie Crist, who was the Republican governor of Florida from 2007-2011 but now seeks the gubernatorial nomination as a Democrat, announced that Colombian-American businesswoman and chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic party, Annette Taddeo-Goldstein would be his running mate.  

In both instances, there is a bit of an undertone of world-weary cynicism befitting a tango in this particular political dance. 

Emanuel has polled badly lately, especially with people of color. In addition to his closures of Chicago public schools (in the double digits), he is best remembered by Latinos as President Obama’s immigrant-unfriendly chief of staff. Which is why, undoubtedly, Gutierrez has been brought on board. Gutierrez has made a name for himself as one of the leading national voices advocating for immigration reform. Still, he may not deliver as much as Emanuel hopes. Last year the Chicago congressman publicly severed ties with Dream Act-centered groups National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA) and DreamActivist.org, presumably over their activist tactics. The move earned him a lot of criticism from the younger, more dynamic activists from the pro-immigrant movement, some of whom accused him of protecting his self-interests and exchanging advocacy of Dreamers for respectability politics. 

For his part, Crist’s choice of Taddeo-Goldstein seems custom-tailored to shore up the (previously Republican and later Independent) former governor’s cred as a business-friendly Democrat (he has been accused of being too populist in his democratic incarnation). Florida is, of course, one of the states with a large Latino votership, but despite Taddeo-Goldstein’s appealing demeanor and local name-recognition value, inroads with the  Latino community are bound to be a bit rocky for Crist. Both Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans who fought for in-state tuition for undocumented students are likely to remember that Crist opposed it back when he was running for governor as a republican. More conservative Latino voters bristle at his suggestion that it’s time to lift the 52-year embargo on Cuba, as well as his call to increase minimum wage (something he at one time opposed). 

Tango, as a dance, incorporates contragiros (opposite direction turns), quebradas (breaks) and sacadas (displacements), and somehow manages a beautiful cohesion. It remains to be seen whether these new Anglo-Latino political pairings will find a way to do the same.