When I first started reading about the concern that black voters in Ohio would select Ken Blackwell based on his race first his politics second; I didn't believe it. In my little corner of suburbia, I can't fathom basing my decision on who I would vote for based on race, sex or sexual preference. I can't imagine my husband basing his vote on a candidate being hispanic as the primary support factor. As this campaign progresses, more and more is being written on this topic; I debated how do I address something that I don't understand. It is not my intention to write something that will insult black voters and I'm not sure if writing this will bring about any clarity. That said, back in June , I highlighted an article written by Jack Ford. To read that article in full now you would need to use the archived pdf version, it contained a warning given by the former Mayor:
Warning to Ohio Democrats: blacks are the most conservative folks in the world. Poll after poll shows 62 percent or better are against abortions and are for the bans on gay marriage. Blacks tend to vote race first, then party. Blackwell will get his share of black votes. Will Strickland? And will Strickland unveil a truly transformative urban policy?
Then yesterday I read a guest column written by Brent Grey over at the Cincinnati Beacon; where Brent relates concern over advertising focused on black radio stations urging voters to make Ken Blackwell the first African American Governor in Ohio. Mr. Grey then relates a conversation with a black voter:
Following the primary, I engaged a prospective voter in conversation and asked the question; “Who do you like for Governor and why?” “I’m going to vote for Blackwell because he represents the Black man,” he said. It became apparent to me that he wasn’t aware that Mr. Blackwell opposes affirmative action but supports educational slots for legacies. He wasn’t aware that Mr. Blackwell does not support an increase in the minimum wage and calls the constitutional initiative an ill-conceived idea. He wasn’t aware that Mr. Blackwell as co-chair of President Bush’s re-election campaign desecrated his position as Secretary of State by disenfranchising voters in highly populated Black/Democratic precincts across the state during the 2004 election. This blatant act of suppression should have warranted his award of a complimentary imperial grand wizard hood and robe.
A few days ago the Cleveland Plain Dealer Open Political Blog highlighted campaign lit that the Ken Blackwell campaign was distributing in a predominately black area of Cleveland. According to the Blackwell campaign, it was meant to be “humorous and informative.” It suggests with the way the picture is done that black voters should be afraid of Ted Strickland.
I can't help but wonder will this work? Will fear be the factor or will it be trying to promote the pride aspect of electing Ken Blackwell merely on his race or will my original premise be correct, that voters will not base their vote on race or sex or sexual preference but on which candidate they feel will be better for all. I realize there are readers of this blog that will vote for Blackwell and I realize that minority voters have been used and pandered too by Democrats in the past as well. I thought that by now we had gotten to the point where it was not the color of the skin of the candidate that mattered, it was not if they were male or female, it mattered not if they were gay or hertosexual...what mattered was their vision, their experience and most of all what they would do for all of their constituents not a selected group. As I remove my rose colored glasses, I'm not sure I like what I see...
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9 comments:
I think that is one of the hardest things for me at times is separating my idealism from what reality will dictate.
Yet I still have hope that one day some of what seems as idealism will become reality.
On this one it's hard to put myself in those voters shoes that feel that race or sexual preference should be the primary reason to support or oppose a candidate.
You found one of the problems. The Democratic Party (and yes, I'm a Democrat.) has a tendency to ignore what African-American voters actually think. Until the party moves closer to the center, where most voters reside, it will just keep shooting itself in the foot. Oh, yes, we want your vote but we know what's best for you and we'll just ignore the fact that you're pro-life. You just vote for us, anyway. Pardon me but that attitude just doesn't work.
Thank you for this post. I think race is an enormous factor in this election and that will continue right up to November. I am white and I'm dubious about my ability to shed much light on these difficult questions, but my sense from talking to African-American political friends is that the feeling of being taking for granted is very real, the symbolism (or historical significance) of electing a black governor is also very real, and there is a definite socially conservative/fervently religious pull in the community. Nevertheless, most black voters will vote for the Democrat, PROVIDED they are given a strong reason to do so. It is up to the candidate to prove that he is not taking them for granted, that he understands the sacrifice involved in not voting for the first African-American gubernatorial candidate in Ohio ever, and that he hears their concerns and is committed to addressing them. In order to do this he must spend a lot of time in the urban African-American communities, and he must make commitments in plain language to address the issues they care about most (good safe schools; more job opportunity in the cities, including for young men who have been incarcerated, affordable health care, etc).
My sense is that Strickland is doing this some, but should do more.
I am taking the contrarian view that race-focused voters will cancel each other out.
I think that every black Democrat who crosses party lines to vote "black" for Blackwell will be equaled by whites who cannot pull the lever for a black person.
Racism still exists, but no ethnic group has a monopoly on racist thought.
To quote the father of former short time Congressman (and late night infomercial spokesman) J.C. Watts: "Being black and voting Republican is like being a chicken and being in love with Colonel Sanders."
However many African-Americans defect to Blackwell will be more than offset by the fact that MANY ultra wingnut GOPer voters (which should be Blackwell's strongest base) are too bigoted to vote for ANY person of color... particularly one that is an obvious whack job.
If the Ohio GOP were to run a moderate and competent black candidate THAT would be much scarier... fortunately, such a candidate may not exist and couldn't get the nomination if they tried.
Even then, as the GOP drifts further and further into moonbat territory, there is a deep well of bigotry and many of their voters will just take the day off rather than vote for a minority candidate.
If the GOP continues to run token black candidates to try and capitalize ont the trends that Jack Ford mentions, they get clobbered by their own racist tendencies.
I had not read The Other Paper until after I had written this blog post. Some important parts that I'll list here in the comments since from what I understand the Other Paper doesn't save archive stories online:
When he discusses Ohio’s race for governor, East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer’s thoughts turn to Gone with the Wind.
In one scene, Scarlett O’Hara encounters a slave named Jim outside a church, where she has been attending to Confederate soldiers.
“She runs up to Jim and says, ‘Jim, Jim, where you going?’ And Jim says, ‘We’re going to stop those Yankees, Miss Scarlett.’ Here’s an African-American who was so ignorant that he didn’t understand that these Yankee soldiers are coming to liberate him.”
To Brewer, black Democrats trying to defeat Republican Ken Blackwell for governor are a lot like Jim the slave.
“I really see the African-American community—not knowing his record, not knowing his intent of wanting to lift poor blacks, poor whites, poor Hispanics out of poverty—and I see them fighting against someone who is really there to help them,” Brewer said.
Brewer is a black Democrat and—as you might guess from his Gone with the Wind analogy—a passionate Blackwell supporter.
If there are a few hundred thousand more Eric Brewers among Ohio voters, Blackwell might just be the next
governor.
“I have a bet going on with a white Democrat, and his bet is that they can turn more black people against Blackwell than those of us who support him can turn for him,” Brewer said.
“I told him that I’m going to take that bet because I don’t believe black folks are that stupid.”
State Rep. Joyce Beatty also doesn’t think black folks are stupid. But she believes they’ll come to a different
conclusion about Blackwell.
“Obviously he is black, and they will know that,” said Beatty, the Ohio House minority leader.
“I think that we are underestimating African-Americans. I think African-Americans will look at the bigger picture. I don’t think that African-Americans, any more than white Americans, vote blindly.”
Democratic Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones acknowledged he has “a couple of friends” who are Democrats supporting Blackwell and thinks the Republican will win votes “because of the symbolic nature of his race.”
Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman said Blackwell’s reputation is “mixed.”
“There is concern about what he has said in the past and what he’s done in the past, and on the other side of the coin is, well, some recognition that for the first time in the history of our state, there is a potential for an African-American governor,” Coleman said.
“I think the fear is that there will be a backlash where you see a European-American candidate beating up on a brother, and that might make him benefit from the predisposition to support black victims,” Commissioner Jones said.
“You don’t want to make Blackwell a sympathetic figure in the African-American community.”
Beatty said conservatives overestimate the extent to which African-Americans obsess over issues such as homosexuality.
“I get hundreds of calls in my office in a week, and I don’t have anybody calling me about gay marriage,” she said. “Nor do I believe that ministers are getting calls from their congregations saying, ‘Somebody gay moved next door to me.’”
And anyway, Beatty said, pastors aren’t allowed to endorse candidates.
That notion drew a laugh from Steve Cheek, president of African American Republicans of Ohio.
“They cannot endorse,” he said, “but you’ve been around.”
At the end of the day, the two big questions for Blackwell are: How much of the black vote can he get, and how much of it does he need?
Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Blackwell got about 20 percent in his first statewide race in 1994, about 30 percent in his next one in 1998 and about 40 percent in 2002. Blackwell won all three elections.
Republican Party has been out heavy and hard and has very successfully signed up a huge number of black voters
If one were to take a tablet and draw a line down the middle with 'R' at the top of one column and 'D' at the top of the other with the instruction: as a black American, list all of the benefits you enjoy today which have been initiated and/or supported by either the R or D party, clearly one side of the tablet would be full while the other empty.
Simple solution.
Lisa,
Your little corner of suburbia doesn’t think primarily in racial terms, but there are many places where voters do. Sexual preference though, is more of a toss-up. Miguel, is not your typical Hispanic, based on the limited information that I have.
Jack Ford however is fairly well known and he has a public track record, which can be assessed. IMO, Mr. Ford also thinks race first, followed by party affiliation, with the concerns of and for the voters a distant third.
I do think that Mr. Ford is right and many black voters will vote color first, which is disappointing.
Unless we can spread the idea of voting for ideas and actions is best choice for all, voter and non-voter alike, candidates will be elected (again) for the wrong reasons, with the correspondingly wrong results.
Haven’t we done that enough already?
Ohio's Democratic Party had an opportunity to show its support for a qualified African American candidate for governor but didn't when party leaders failed to pressure Ted Strickland out of campaigning against Columbus Mayor Mike Coleman. The party had a second opportunity to show support to the African American community but didn't when Strickland chose Lee Fisher, a Jew, over Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, an African American, to serve as his running mate.
I am personally insulted, and I'm not anti-Semetic, when Coleman was harangued by Ohio's Jewish community for inviting Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan to speak to African American mayors who traveled to Columbus for a national black mayor's conference. Coleman was so intimidated by the Jewish community he didn't even show up for Farrakhan's speech, offering the lame excuse that he had city business in which he was required to attend.
Strickland had at first decided against campaigning for governor but was encouraged by Jewish leaders to get back in the race so they could teach Coleman a lesson. Since when does the Jewish community get to decide who is acceptable to African Americans, and why should African American voters support a Democratic Party ticket that doesn't benefit them?
Now, the Democratic Party wants African American voters to back a segregated ticket containing two white males with absolutely no history of supporting the African American community. Strickland and Fisher's presence in this campaign is an absolute insult to the African American community, and a slap in the face to black voters who have loyally supported the party for years.
I think what's even more insulting to Ohio is that Strickland has absolutely no administrative background. He's never managed anything but his Congressional office.
Ohio government is a business. Right now, with the state's major economic and public policy challenges, we don't need novices trying to learn state government on the job. Strickland's lack of experience will set us all back.
I'm supporting Ken Blackwell primarily because he's had 12 years of high level state government experience, experience in Washington with HUD, and experience as a member of Cincinnati city council and the city's mayor.
Aside from his government experience, Blackwell is a successful businessman.
If Blackwell were white instead of African American, we wouldn't even be talking about a comparison between the two candidates because no one would take Strickland's resume seriously. It is only because the inferior Strickland is white, and he's relying on the race card as much as Blackwell's camp, that we're even having a discussion about his presence in the campaign.
Does anyone think it odd but me that University Heights Mayor Bery Rothchild, a Republican, has switched sides to support the Strickand-Fisher ticket? I guess it's okay for Jews, Irish, Italians and other ethnic groups to stick together but not African Americans.
Aside from his ethnicity, Blackwell is the best candidate to lead Ohio.
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