By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
While GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain courts women voters with his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, his Black support is dwindling.
Four years after Black participation in the Republican National Convention hit a high note, it has spiraled down a 78.4 percent decline to its lowest point in 40 years, according to a study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
And registration of Black Republicans is sliding, the Associated Press recently reported.
Former NFL pro and 2006 Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann acknowledged the evidence does point to a persistent divide between Republicans and the Black community. “We’re not going to try and cover up and say the party is something that it’s not. We’re not going to say we’re happy with the number of Black Americans who are part of the party, who take on leadership roles and who are delegates,” said the Black GOP figurehead.
Only 36 Black delegates, comprising 1.5 percent of the total, are seated at the convention in St. Paul, Minn., the study showed. And the number of Black alternates has also decreased from 124 in 2004 to 26 in 2008, a 71 percent decline.
C.J. Jordan, McCain’s African American Coalition coordinator, said the figures reflect the division of Black conservatives in the primary election. “The number of African-American delegates is not a negative reflection on Sen. McCain at all,” she said and added, “We’re very excited about the number of African-American delegates and other minority delegates that have joined us here at the Republican National Convention.”
Comparatively, 1,087 Black delegates, comprising 24.5 percent of the total body, were at the Democratic Convention in Denver. “When you’re talking about the Democratic Party, you’re not talking about White people; that’s not what it is anymore. Minorities make up more than one-third of the vote,” said David Bositis, senior analyst at the Joint Center and author of the report. On the other hand, “Southern conservatives, they’re the Republican Party and as long as they’re the party, African Americans aren’t going to buy into it.”
Similarly, while Blacks are well represented in the Democratic Party leadership, Black participation in the Republican National Committee has generally been “minimal,” the Joint Center study stated. Currently, the RNC counts one African American among its 165 members. Additionally, at the convention, the only African American with a prime speaking role is former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and only one Black is on the standing committees.
“It doesn’t really matter if we had 25 percent Black delegates if we are not represented in these campaigns at the kitchen table where the decisions are made,” said Raynard Jackson, a former GOP convention delegate and political consultant. “When was the last time you saw McCain get off a plane with an African American at his side?”
McCain does represent a state with few African Americans, Bositis said, “But, I consider it a bad reflection on [him] that he’s been in Washington for more than 25 years and hasn’t made any connections with Black policy people. You sort of wonder, ‘why?’”
Faced with a relative stranger, disillusioned by the Bush administration and drawn by Sen. Barack Obama’s historic candidacy, some Black conservatives are jumping the fence.
The AP pointed to a drop in Black Republican registration in the three states that track voting registration by party and race—a trend that is likely replicated nationwide—even as registration among Black Democrats has soared.
In Florida, 81,512 more Black Democrats registered while 784 Black Republicans decamped; Louisiana has 34,325 more Black Democrats, while the number of black Republicans dropped by 907 and in North Carolina, 92,356 Black Democrats signed up while 2,850 Black Republicans signed out. “I probably disagree with Obama to the tune of 50 to 60 percent on issue but Obama’s presidency is bigger than my party affiliation,” Jackson said of his support for the Democratic candidate.
Holdouts like Frances Rice, chair and co-founder of the fledgling National Black Republican Association, say they’ll never support Obama, citing his relative inexperience and ideology. “I can understand people wanting to have a Black person become president,” Rice said. “But, we need the right president not just a Black president.”
In an attempt to sway Black voters, Rice said, the NBRA welcomed the Democratic Convention to Denver with 64 billboards conveying two main ideas: King was a Republican—an assertion The King Center in Atlanta and other civil rights leaders deny—and Obama is no King. “Sen. Obama is trying to put upon himself the mantle of Dr. King when [he] shares nothing in common with Dr. King,” Rice said. “Dr. King was a minister, who did share our conservative values. Sen. Barack Obama is a far left-winger with radical left-wing views. He does not share the traditional values that have made our country great.”
Jackson said such rhetoric does not mitigate the fact that Republicans have been out of step with the issues facing African Americans today. “I’m totally embarrassed by Frances Rice and that organization. Disagree with Obama on issues but to tell me Dr. Martin Luther King was a Republican 40-, 50-some years ago, how is that relevant? How does that impact the Black community today?” he said. “That’s the problem with Black Republicans and the Republican Party at large….See if they can make an argument that Black people should join the party without mentioning slavery, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and civil rights.”
According to the NAACP Report Card, a venerated barometer of lawmakers’ responsiveness to Black issues, not one Republican senator earned an A or B during the 109th Congress. One, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, earned a C, and another, Mike DeWine of Ohio, was given a D. The other 54 Republicans who served the full session earned F's.
Sen. McCain, who made a much delayed visit to the NAACP annual conference in July, received Fs over 11 grading periods and got Incompletes the two times he ran for president. Similarly, in the House, three Republicans received the highest grade of D and 211 got F's.
Jordan said, however, Republicans have done much more than just point to the historic relationship between Blacks and the party. “We have done a tremendous job in various legislative accomplishments and initiatives that benefit the African-American community,” she said, but, “there’s a double standard” that cause those accomplishments to go unacknowledged.
Renee Amoore, deputy chairwoman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, said some of the onus lies on the GOP to get out the word about its efforts. “We just assume people know that we’ve done it; we don’t brag enough,” she said. “We have to get out, get into grassroots, knock on doors, shout from the skies what we do and how we do it….We have to get out and touch people and let them know who we are.”
“Why would I want to align myself with a party that has no one who looks like me...?
Swann said about the outreach to Blacks, “I pose three questions for people to answer with reference to Blacks being in the Republican Party: Who am I? What do I believe? And, how do I act on those beliefs? If more Black voters start to ask themselves those questions, I believe they will see the Republican Party might represent them better than the Democratic Party.”
But that’s a hard sell, Jackson said, when African Americans don’t see themselves represented throughout the party. “Why would I want to align myself with a party that has no one who looks like me...? Sometimes I don’t want to be the only Black in the room.”