by James Oliphant

In a renewed push to reach Hispanic voters, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has enlisted the help of Federico Pena, the former Denver mayor and Clinton cabinet official.

Pena, who joins the campaign as a co-chair, said that the Hispanic vote will be critical in a number of hotly contested states, including California, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey, both in the primaries and the general election. While George W. Bush benefited from strong Hispanic support in his two campaigns, Pena said he believes "Hispanics are once again leaning to the Democratic Party."

His job, he said, will be to help Obama make inroads in the Hispanic community, saying Obama understands its "fundamental challenges." Polls show that Hillary Clinton enjoys the highest level of support among Hispanic voters, having been endorsed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, among others. And, of course, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson is a Latino who is hopes to draw significant support as well.

As part of his outreach effort, Pena said he will attempt to bring Obama to the Mexico-U.S. border, a place most presidential candidates have been avoiding, despite the fact illegal immigration remains a core issue in the race. "I'm going to work with the senator to try and get him down there as soon as I can," Pena said.

Obama will be attending the Univision Democratic presidential forum Sunday night in Miami. The televised debate will be conducted in Spanish with questions translated into English. (Richardson and Sen. Christopher Dodd will have a leg up; both are fluent in Spanish.)

Pena served first as Transportation Secretary and later as Energy Secretary under Bill Clinton. In spite of that, he went with Obama over Hillary Clinton. He declined to comment on whether the Clinton camp approached him for an endorsement. Instead, he said he was drawn to Obama's ability to draw "diverse groups together," calling him a "unifier."