CLIFFORD SMITH
Staff Writer
About a year and a half ago, I met James Whitfield. He was black, in his early 30s, married and had kids. He was working as the senior officer for community relations for the Washington Health Foundation in Seattle, a nonprofit organization for community health and was also running for Washington State Legislature as a Republican.
For the most part, black people are overwhelmingly associated with the Democratic Party. Republicans have trouble getting much more than 10 percent of the vote from the black community, and Democrats depend on them to get elected. In 2000, President Bush received only 9 percent of the black vote.
It’s a strange place for the Republican Party to find itself because the party was instrumental in passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Still, Republicans trail badly in modern times when it comes to votes from blacks.
That may well be set to change soon. Polls also show that more and more blacks are declaring themselves independents instead of Democrats, and that they agree with Republicans on many social issues, such as gay marriage. What’s more, President Bush made some progress in 2004, receiving 12 percent of the black vote nationwide. This is hardly impressive, but is a sizable improvement, and the gains were larger in key battleground states, like Ohio, where he received 16 percent of the black vote. Bush has appointed more blacks to positions of power then any president before him, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of Education Rod Paige and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. What’s more, several black leaders are throwing their hats into the electoral ring as Republicans in a host of key races that will take place in the 2006 midterm elections.
In Maryland, Senator Paul Sarbanes is retiring, and while a whole host of Democrats are fighting it out in the primary, Republicans have already united around Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Steele, former chairman of the Maryland State Republican party, is black. He’s well liked by Marylanders, and is a powerful speaker, giving a prime-time address at the 2004 Republican National Convention. He is running slightly ahead of all his Democratic competitors in recent polls, in spite of the fact that Maryland is a strongly blue state.
In Pennsylvania, former football superstar Lynn Swann, is black and a veteran of four Super Bowl teams and is running for governor. He’s got a primary opponent in former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton, but appears at this time to be leading him in polling and fundraising.
If he wins the primary, he’ll face off against the powerful Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, whose opponents call him ‘Boss’ Rendell. His proponents downplay his lack of political experience, and instead point to his character and breadth of experience, as an athlete, a broadcaster, a motivational speaker, a spokesman for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. The latest polls show him slightly ahead of Rendell.
In the neighboring state of Ohio, Ken Blackwell, who is black and has served in many different political capacities, is finally getting his chance at the governor’s office. He has two primary challengers, but he is leading both of them in the polls. Ohio has been leaning Republican for quite some time. The unpopularity of the current Republican governor, Bob Taft, could hurt his chances. Yet Blackwell has been a critic of Taft from the very beginning and hasn’t hesitated to criticize his policies, even though they are members of the same party. If he wins the primary, he will face one of several Democratic opponents, probably Republican Ted Strickland.
Finally, former Detroit City Councilman Keith Butler, who is the pastor at a Michigan “mega church” in the Detroit suburbs, is running for senator of Michigan. He is running behind Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard for the Republican nomination, but, if he can get elected as a Republican to the Detroit City Council, arguably one of the most Democratic city in the nation, But don’t count him out yet.
Whitfield ultimately lost his race for state representative in Washington to a better-funded, established Democrat. But he’s young, and was recently appointed the regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by Secretary Mike Leavitt. The candidates mentioned above in these more high-profile races might lose as well, but they also all have excellent chances of winning. Will appointing prominent black people to positions of power, and nominating them for elective office sway reluctant blacks back into the Republican Party? It isn’t certain, but the future of both parties hangs in the balance.
02-09-2006