Black Virginia Votes 2006: Because Somebody Needs to Say It Thursday, October 19, 2006
Posted by Conaway B. Haskins III in Uncategorized.trackback
It’s no secret that I supported Jim Webb during his Democratic primary campaign against Harris Miller. I was fully aware that his stances on affirmative action, as well as, the heated rhetoric of his writings would cause major problems among orthodox Democrats as he headed into the June contest. The primary results demonstrated this. Given the effectiveness of the Miller campaign in exploiting this issue, the Allen campaign had to take that ball and run with it, otherwise they’d have failed Politics 101.
Having recently re-joined the Democratic Party, I am well aware of the perception that the Party takes African Americans for granted. I hear it in churches, barbershops, via e-mails, and at family gatherings. Although no one can quite put their finger on it, something is amiss and that perception shapes people’s outlooks. Amidst the cacophony, the actual facts are sometimes cast aside, especially as people jockey for position and attention.
Historically, the powers-that-be in the Virginia Democratic Party were not always open to black political advancement. The history of the Byrd Organization is well-documented, and its remnants stuck with the Party into the 1980′s and early 1990′s. But anyone who thinks of the Democratic Party as static has been asleep for quite some time. In the 21st-century Democratic Party of Virginia, former Gov. Mark Warner remains very popular among African-Americans, Gov. Tim Kaine’s reputation in the black community exceeds Warner’s, and blacks play a number of critical roles from the grassroots to the top echelons of leadership.
Currently, blacks make up around 30% of the Democratic Caucuses in both the Virginia House of Delegates (12 of 40) and Virginia Senate (5 of 17). Should Democrats take over either chamber, it can be expected that a number of committee and subcommittee chairmanships would go to African Americans. When Virginia’s Democratic Congressional delegation convenes, one of the three (33%) representatives is African-American. These proportions are mostly in line with the black proportion of the Democratic Party vote, and they exceed the overall black percentage of Virginia’s total population (18%).
While things may not be peachy keen with Democrats and African-Americans in certain communities, from a statistical standpoint, Democrats have done a decent job in bringing African-Americans to the table of power in the Party. By no means does is this meant to imply that everything is just swell, and while things can surely be even better, to act as of blacks are second-class citizens in the Democratic Party is just plain dishonest…especially when compared to the Republicans.
Virginia’s Republican Party truly has a spotty record of actually producing black officeholders or leaders of prominence at the state level. Currently, there are no black Republicans in the General Assembly – it’s been awhile since Paul Harris and Winsome Sears roamed Capitol Square – or in the Congressional delegation. Republicans have not recently nominated African-Americans for notable political positions in Virginia, despite the presence of a handful of black Republican elected officials at the municipal level.
The decision by a number of black political, civic, religious, and media leaders to endorse Sen. Allen is not surprising because black Virginians tend to support the GOP in stronger numbers than blacks nationally. Still, one has to wonder what the result will be in terms of blacks rising to power within the Republican Party and reaching elected office under the GOP label. While, the overall growth in the attraction of blacks to the ideas and issues of the Republican Party and the increasing courtship of those African-American voters by the GOP are real phenomena that Democrats cannot ignore, intellectual honesty demands asking what blacks have gained from any of this.
Just to re-cap: One party gets 85% of the black vote and blacks are 30% of its elected officials. The other party gets 15% (some say 20%) of the black vote, and blacks are 0% of its notable elected officials. That’s fuzzy math if I ever saw it.
I firmly believe that the diversification of black political affiliation is good for African Americans and the overall racial dynamics of Virginia and American politics in the long run, even as it causes difficulties for my Party. On the other hand, the Republican Party of Virginia has very little to show for all of its talk. So, while I welcome the competition for the political attention of African Americans, I challenge the Republican Party to go beyond their racially-uplifting rhetoric and produce real results.
Wow. That’s powerful — I can actually feel your thoughts (as opposed to just reading them). For me personally, two small excerpts say it all:
“But anyone who thinks of the Democratic Party as static has been asleep for quite some time.”
“I challenge the Republican Party to go beyond their racially-uplifting rhetoric and produce real results.”
I hestitate to call myself a strict Democrat. I cannot honestly label myself as a Republican. And the Libertarians’ love for pot (ganja; reefer) just turns me off, period. What I quote you as saying, above, pretty much summarizes why I find recent Democratic candidates so appealling.
At least Democrats roll up their sleeves and work. They get out there and try to do what others sneer at as being impossible. I like this. The Little Engine That Could. To me this is character. This is how real progress occurs.
On the opposite end: Donning a stiff grey suit, kicking back in a General Assembly room and making new laws (without a grey hair ever falling out of place) does nothing. Our country has not improved under this type of “leadership”.
Results come from rolling up the sleeves and getting right into it.
I had absolutely no idea that blacks were so over-represented (compared to the population) in the General Assembly. I’d be curious to know what the representation is like on the state central committee. If it’s at or above 18%, I have to wonder how it’s even possible for the VADP to take the black vote for granted. That would not speak well of those blacks who are on the committee and in the GA.
On a related topic, I hate the word “black” as a noun used to describe a person. It’s an adjective masquerading as a noun, taking one attribute of a person and presenting it as the very essence of their being. (Like “gays”.) I guess I should work up a blog entry about that.
Conaway:
Add this to the equation …
Which party was in the majority when the first African Americans were elected by the legislature to the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Court of Appeals?
Was there a single minority person interviewed by the legislature for appointment to the bench this year? last year?
How many African American judges have been taken off the bench (removed or not reappointed) since the Republican majority gained control of the judicial nominations process?
The picture re: appointments of women judges was grim this year (see my blog post, http://changeservant.blogspot.com/2006/03/52-of-population-deserves-better-when.html).
However, the picture regarding appointment of African Americans was grimmer.
This is not acceptable.
I would really love to see some letters to the editor and guest editorials along these lines, especially to the Richmond Voice:
Yesterday, Allen was trumpeting “African-American Newspaper Endorses Senator Allen.”
He said:
“In yet another indication of the breadth of support that Senator Allen is drawing this year from all across the Commonwealth, The Richmond Voice today endorsed Senator Allen for re-election. The full text of the endorsement follows:
The Richmond Voice Endorsement
This has been an election year in which Black folks have had to listen to allegations about which U.S. Senate candidate is a racist, who said the n-word, and so forth. It is sad that when they talk about Black people, it¹s only in the context of these trivialities and not about the issues that affect the everyday lives of Black people.
There are myriad issues that should be dominating conversations: how to ensure that our children grow up in safe, drug free and crime free neighborhoods; how to guarantee an equal playing field for our small businesses when it comes to getting government contracts; how to change the schools in our neighborhoods so they can all pass benchmarks; how to fight the HIV/AIDS ravage of our community; and how to help single parents discontinue the cycle of poverty that governs their lives.
History has shown us that when we are out of sight, we are out of mind. When the elections are over, you just might be out of mind. And if only the campaign was dominated with real issues, at least you would know that you said your piece before you were out of mind.
It was refreshing to learn that state Sen. Benjamin Lambert III had stepped out of the box and was thinking for himself instead of letting his political affiliation think for him. Regardless of what you think, what he did was gigantic because the Democratic Party has always had a noose around Black folks’ necks.
Bishop Gerald O. Glenn of Chesterfield County also spoke out against race baiting, and this newspaper, always an independent thinker, is speaking out too.
We can¹t live in the past forever, we must build new bridges and our first step across the bridge is to endorse Sen. George Allen, who is running for re-election. The past allows our slave masters to always tell us how to vote, and this newspaper is doing its part in breaking away from the slave shackles. Sen. Allen’s record with the Black community may have started out blotchy, but we feel that he has learned the most about what is important to the community. We don’t have to justify our endorsement, but we want to tell our readers that a new breeze is blowing and you can either join it or stay shackled in the past.”
[...] I was asked by one of my readers to comment on the recent endorsments received by incumbent Republican Senator George Allen from Richmond’s The Voice Newspaper and the National Black Farmers Association. I am not familiar with The Voice so I do not know how much influence the paper has. I did contact some of my friends in Richmond, including Conaway Haskins, who has his own thoughts about blacks and the Republican Party. [...]
“It was refreshing to learn that state Sen. Benjamin Lambert III had stepped out of the box and was thinking for himself [...] the Democratic Party has always had a noose around Black folks’ necks.”
Hmmm. Senator Lambert stated he supports Allen because of his promises to increase money to historically black colleges. So now The Voice steps out of the box. Hmmmmmm.
A “noose” is ok so long as the rope is made from dollar bills.
Conaway:
Why don’t Americans with African Heritage run against Bobby Scott for his seat? It would seem to me he is out of step with a lot of voters in his district, and a viable conservative candidate would get a ton of support from the GOP… If the GOP wouldn’t support such a candidate then the GOP deserves to get Bobby Scott!
It seems to me that conservatives from those districts just are not stepping forward, and I really wonder why?
Spank – the GOP ran a black conservative candidate against Scott last time – former Delegate Winsome Sears. And she got beat by a larger margin than did Randy Forbes’ unknown candidate (Menafee?) in the 4th CD.
You want to know what blacks get for supporting the GOP? Go talk to Benny Lambert and ask him about his one on one meeting with President Bush last week. Ask him about getting to spend an entire hour pushing his funding of HBCUs and how he now has the President’s support. In a year when the law is signed, sealed and delivered, just remember that it was Lambert (a lowly state Senator) who knew how the political game was played and who played the game masterfully. That is how elected officals are supposed to serve their constituents and black leaders and voters should learn a lesson about how successful they can be when they reach across the aisle and work on issues, not labels.
Vivian:
I tend to keep my ears open to VA poltics.. I’ve never heard of Ms. Sears? Maybe that is a function of the MSM? Why isn’t she trying again?
Chris, it’s not a function of the MSM. She was a member of the House of Delegates for 1.5 terms from Hamptom Roads. She was the only black Republican at the time – after Paul Harris left for DC- and she got along pretty well with the black Democrats from what I was told. She ran against Bobby Scott, and got a lot of media attention, from VA media and national. But, she’s now mostly an afterthought from all appearances despite being a thoughtful and capable woman – that doesn’t reflect well on her party.
Conaway, you analysis misses a very important parts of the political picture. Blacks who are in the legislature are primarily from majority minority districts and none except Paul Harris and Bobby Scott earlier from districts that were not.
While blacks have signifigant numbers in the GA, that is not because the Democrat party who controlled Virginia wanted it that way but because federal law required it.
The Virginia Democratic party and its legislators have a dismal record when it comes to making sure blacks had equal opportunity for election to constitutional office in Virginia.
For many years, from the time of the Byrd machine until Republicans took over the General Assembly and threw out the good old boy system, the Democrat legislators appointed the Circuit Judges and the Judges appointed the constitutional officers, all of whom knew they had an obligation to retire early and allow a judge to appoint their replacement who could then run as an incumbent. For all those years, easily over thirty, with five constitutional positions in each county and in many cities, with the black citizens regularly voting 90-95% Democratic, what were the results? There were over thirty counties/cities with large black populations, five positions available in each and with multiple retirements over the years, over 1500 opportunities for the Democrats to reward their most loyal supporters. Go check, and you will find that the good old boy Democrat smoke filled room system systematically left blacks on the sideline when it came to these very desirable local positions.
I don’t think there were 2% given to black Democrats. A very sorry reward for the number of white Democrats elected to office as legislators in the deal.
To the credit of the GOP, when they took power, rather than use the system for the take care of my buddy patronage the way the Democrats had for years, they changed it and now there is little time for an appointed person to build an incumbents position and a prescribed method as to who will be appointed as the temporary officeholder.
Why should a black be a Republican? For the same reasons any other person should be a Republican . They certainly has no debt in Virginia to a Democrat party that denied them equal opportunity to be a constitutional officer for so many years.
BTW- ask Vivian about the good old boy system and how the Democrat machine treated her.
Winsome Sears served just one term in the House, defeating Billy Robinson Jr in 2001 after redistricting put part of the 90th in VB & Chesapeake, diluting the Democratic vote. And if I recall correctly, she left the Legislative Black Caucus, so I don’t know how well she got along with the Ds.
As for her run against Scott – it was all over the media. She debated him at every opportunity, including on TV. It wasn’t for lack of exposure that she lost; in fact, it was probably BECAUSE of the exposure that she lost. Sears is a right-wing evangelical (she said God told her to leave the General Assembly) and, as the vote showed (she lost by 39 points), out of step with the voters in the3rd. That’s why she’s not running again.
an honest look – you are quite correct on the history of the constitutional offices.
The Most Important Senate Race
By Jay Bryant
Yesterday, a group of African-American Democrats from Prince George’s County, Maryland, endorsed Republican Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele, a fellow black, for the U.S. Senate. It might be the most important political development in the country this week.
Control of the Senate appears to hinge on the results in one or two contests. There are no states in which Republicans have appeared likely to pick up a seat, although New Jersey remains a possibility. If Steele could manage an upset in the race for the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes, it could be the difference-maker. And Steele is undeniably close. The current RealClearPolitics poll average shows him trailing by 5.3 percentage points, and, in the words of University of Maryland political scientist Ron Walters, yesterday’s endorsements are “going to go through the black community like a rocket. It’s going to be the talk of the county, the state, maybe even the nation.”
Tipping the balance in the Senate is only one of the two reasons Steele’s campaign is the most important in the country this year, but before we look at the other reason, let’s discuss the importance of yesterday’s endorsements.
Prince George’s County is a huge, majority-black area east of Washington, D.C. With a total population of just under 850,000, it’s the second-largest jurisdiction in the state, with some 225,000 more people than the city of Baltimore. As you would expect given its ethnic makeup, it’s a Democratic stronghold. In 2002, the ticket of Governor Bob Ehrlich and Steele won statewide by four percentage points (52-48), but lost in Prince George’s by fifty-three percentage points (76-23).
So why a high-powered leadership would group from Prince George’s break ranks with their party and support Steele? (And they are high-powered. Their leader is a two-term former County Executive, Wayne Curry, arguably the most popular politician in the county. Five others are members of the County Council. Another, Major Riddick, was the top aide to former Governor Parris Glendening. Also on hand were one of the Democrats’ top fundraisers, several prominent businessmen and other community leaders.)
Part of it is that Steele is a Prince Georgian. The county leaders know him, like him and respect him. But that alone wouldn’t be nearly enough to cause them to break ranks with their party in a critical election.
What it’s really all about is that blacks in Maryland have begun to realize that they’ve been being snookered by the white-dominated Democratic Party all these years. As Riddick put it, “They’ve been showing us a pie, but we never get a slice.”
Voting statistics aren’t kept by race, of course; they call it a “secret ballot” after all. But if you work out the math, you can pretty easily demonstrate that something like half of all Maryland Democratic voters are black. Half!
What have Maryland blacks gotten for their loyalty to the party? Virtually nothing. Oh, sure, they get representatives to legislative offices in districts where they have the overwhelming majority. Occasionally they get to be Mayor of Baltimore – although the current mayor is white, and running for Governor, something no black mayor could even seriously consider.
Indeed, in the entire history of the state of Maryland, exactly one person of African-American heritage has been elected to any statewide office. His name is Michael Steele.
If the state were a corporation, it’d be hauled up before the EEOC. And remember, in most years nomination by the Democrats is tantamount to election. Ehrlich is only the second Republican Governor of Maryland. If there’s racism, including a past pattern of racism, it falls entirely on the Democratic doorstep. And the trend hasn’t stopped; Steele’s white opponent, Congressman Ben Cardin, is white, and virtually the entire Democratic establishment in the state backed him in his successful primary race against former Congressmen Kweisi Mfume. Blacks were told, in effect, not yet, and many of them are understandably asking, “How long, O Lord, how long?”
Because Maryland has such a large black population, at 29.1% almost two and a half times the national average of 12.4%, the fact that blacks have been shut out of real leadership in the party is particularly egregious. But it’s true throughout the country.
That’s the other reason Steele’s election is so critical, to Republicans and black voters. In the entire history of the United States, only five African Americans have served in the Senate: three Republicans and two Democrats. And in these post-civil rights times, it is only fitting to ask why the party for whose candidates 90% of black voters regularly cast their ballots has not done better. Indeed, if you believe in affirmative action, as Democrats say they do, then there should be ten or eleven black Democratic Senators at any given time these days. Whereas in fact there has never been more than one.
Michael Steele’s election as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland served to awaken black voters in that state to the fact that they were second-class citizens within their own party, and many of them are determined to send the party a message by voting for Steele this year. If he gets something like 25% of the black vote, he will probably win, and some polls showed him with that many even before the endorsement by Curry, et. al.
The awakening that followed Steele’s election four years ago in Maryland will become national if he becomes a United States Senator.
An honest look: You still have no answers on where the blacks in the GOP are. Also, you overlooked Del. Onzlee Ware – his district is not a black majority one.
Mr. Bryant: Maryland is not Virginia in so many ways.
Vivian: You are the voice of reason as always, my dear.
The derision of black Republicans among many in the black political class is some of the harshest and meanest in politics. If you don’t believe me, just go and look at what many liberal African-American leaders have said about Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice. Is it possible that some African-American voters in MD are giving pollsters the politically correct answer that they are voting for the Democrat, because they know that is what they are “supposed” to say, but might do something different in the voting booth ? Perhaps we are witnessing a reverse ‘Wilder effect’ in MD?
It is moderately good news for Cardin that the same survey that shows O’Malley up only one point in the Governor race has him with a six-point lead on Steele. But the Cardin campaign can’t be thrilled with only a six-point lead with Steele only pulling 12% of the black vote. With Steele sporting a 7-point lead among white voters, what happens to Cardin’s lead if Steele’s 12% of the black vote goes to 20% or 25%? That’s why this week’s endorsement of Steele by powerful Prince George’s county black Democrats is potentially huge in this race. This poll was taken Saturday-Monday and thus was taken too early gauge what impact their endorsements may have on the race.
There is more public polling set to come out today.