With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa out of the governor's race, the two leading candidates have amped up efforts to woo the critical Latino vote in next June's gubernatorial Democratic primary. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has intensified his bid to win Latino hearts and minds as he tries to build a Southern California support base strong enough to take on Attorney General Jerry Brown. Polls show Newsom will have his work cut out for him. Brown enjoys a huge lead in the polls among Latino voters, with 51 percent saying they'd back him compared with to 22 percent for Newsom. 'Latinos not only have become the balance of power in California,' says Jorge Garcia, professor of Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge. 'They're also now in a position to determine who will be the Democratic nominee for governor next year.' More than one in three Californians is Latino, and they likely will compose from 15 to 18 percent of the Democratic primary vote in 2010, according to the Southwest Voter Registration Project. About 40 percent of the state's likely Latino voters live in Southern California. In a clear sign of Newsom's intent to grab the attention of Latinos, he recently named one of the state's more prominent Hispanic politicians, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, to chair his statewide campaign. While Brown has not officially announced his candidacy, he is widely expected to do so soon. Villaraigosa, who announced he would not run for governor earlier this month, has not endorsed a candidate. In recent weeks, Newsom has made a flurry of visits to Southern California, the most recent this week. Today he is scheduled to address a public forum hosted by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. With Villaraigosa out of the picture, Brown has been widely seen as having the advantage with Latino voters and likely to pick up the lion's share of the Los Angeles mayor's ethnic base. Statewide, the attorney general has a 20-point lead over Newsom and leads the San Francisco mayor in every part of the state except the Bay Area. A spokesman for Brown did not return a call for comment. Veteran Latino activist and Brown supporter James Acevedo says the former governor's Latino base is formidable. Regarded by many as the godfather of Latino politics in the San Fernando Valley, Acevedo says the one-time governor remains popular among Latinos because of his close friendship with the late farm-labor leader Cesar Chavez and his long support of issues important to Hispanics. 'Jerry Brown has always been good with Latinos,' Acevedo said. 'I think he and his family have always been extremely progressive when it comes to our issues.' But the Newsom campaign is quick to challenge the conventional wisdom that the Latino vote sides with Brown. 'I think the Villaraigosa voters are up for grabs and they don't automatically fall to either Jerry Brown or Gavin Newsom,' said veteran political strategist Garry South, who is working for Newsom. 'I think Jerry Brown thinks they fall in his lap because he used to claim L.A. as a voting residence 40 years ago, but I'm not sure how much pop that has with the current Latino voters in the city of L.A.' Padilla, who also brings to the campaign a strong political organization in the voter-rich San Fernando Valley, has become the point person in the Newsom campaign's attempt to portray Brown as irrelevant to many Latino voters. 'When it comes to the Latino community, not only is the world a different place today versus 30 years ago, but the Latino community has grown and is certainly more diverse than it was ... and its leadership has changed,' Padilla said in an interview. 'The Latino vote is increasingly significant in statewide elections in California, and Gavin Newsom is committed to earning that support 110 percent.' Some independent polling supports the Newsom campaign's contention that the Latino vote is for the taking. 'The Latino vote is wide open,' says Andr? Pineda, who polled Latinos for Barack Obama's campaign. Pineda's recent private sampling of Latino voters found that only 23 percent felt very positive or very negative about Brown and only 11 percent felt very positive or very negative about Newsom. 'In other words, very few Latino primary voters have strong feelings about either Brown or Newsom, and how they vote will be determined by who best appeals to Latinos on the issues,' Pineda said. 'As for the popular notion that Brown has a built-in advantage (with Latinos), I don't think he has anything of the sort.' Political observers say polls show that the Latino vote could break down by age, with middle-age and older Hispanics going with Brown and younger voters with little to no memory of Brown supporting Newsom. Some like Cristina Barrera, a 19-year-old UCLA sophomore from Pacoima, were not even born when Brown was governor. 'I know he was governor but not much more,' Barrera said. 'I would want to know more about both candidates before I decided for whom I would vote.' 