Senate Republicans are set to vote overwhelmingly against Sonia Sotomayor next week, and they appear to believe there is little price to pay politically, despite Democratic warnings of a backlash from Hispanic voters.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Sotomayor will get just "a handful" of GOP votes and warned Republicans will be treated "the same way as they got treated as a result of how they handled immigration."

But the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has led GOP opposition to Sotomayor, shot back later, pointing to a recent Gallup Poll that shows the Sotomayor nomination and GOP opposition having no impact so far on the views of Hispanic voters. The poll notes a drop in Hispanics' support for Obama that "comes the week after the confirmation hearings of Hispanic Judge Sonia Sotomayor, something one might predict would earn Obama credit among Hispanic Americans."

GOP aides and political strategists echo this view. "Ultimately, this comes down to the candidates," said a Republican official familiar with GOP Senate campaigns. The official dismissed the political impact of a Sotomayor vote at the state and local levels, calling the idea "absurd."

McConnell's office also pointed to past statements by Reid, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., decrying Republican attacks on Democrats for opposing female and Hispanic GOP nominees.