But Martinez's frustration was well known. He had warned that a continuation of the GOP's 2006 tactics -- airing anti-illegal immigration television ads that many believed used ethnic stereotypes -- could doom the party's hope of competing for the country's fastest-growing voter bloc.
Those tactics, strategists said, erased many of the gains achieved by Bush and his chief political advisor, Karl Rove, who had been assiduously courting Latinos since Bush's first run for Texas governor in 1994.
In 2004, after an intense bilingual campaign, Bush won an estimated 40% of the Latino vote, helping ensure his reelection. Republicans won just 30% of the Latino vote in 2006. Next year's election could be decided by Latino-rich states such as Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
"I believe that not to play this card right would be the destruction of our party," Martinez said in a spring interview with the Los Angeles Times. "Hispanics make up about 13% of our country, and by 2020 will be closer to 20%. It is a demographic trend that one cannot overlook."
The debate over courting Latino voters has split the GOP, with each side charging that the other would destroy the party's hopes of regaining a majority.
Critics of the GOP's Latino outreach have accused Bush, Rove and Martinez of compromising core conservative principles in their support for creating a path to amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
Opinion leaders such as talk show host Rush Limbaugh have charged that loosening immigration laws would only hurt Republicans, because new immigrants tend to register as Democrats.
The party base appears to be winning the fight.
The top Republican candidates for president, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, are promising to be tougher on illegal immigration.
Of the higher-profile GOP candidates, only Sen. John McCain of Arizona has accepted an invitation to participate in a debate sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision.
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peter.wallsten@latimes.com
