Besides working on issues that are particularly important to African Americans, the Democrats are going to have to appoint African Americans to high-level positions and support African American candidates for high public office.
I ended my diary, "Russell Simmons: Howard Dean Not Reaching Out To Blacks" like this:
Why hasn't Dean moved to support well-qualified African American candidates running for office who find themselves challenged by lesser-qualified white candidates? Kweisi Mfume shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Maryland Senate campaign; Michael Coleman shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Ohio Gubenatorial campaign; Charles Sanders shouldn't have a primary challenger in his Ohio 2nd Congressional District campaign; and Mark Mallory shouldn't have a primary challenge in his Cincinnati Mayoral campaign. But these highly-qualified African American candidates all find themselves challenged in primary battles by white Democrats. Why?
For raising this issue, I was verbally assaulted and called names, including a racist and a troll.
(I've come to the conclusion that some of you are simply incapable of discussing issues without resorting to name-calling and are too childish to ignore a diary that you disagree with. Your behavior -- which continues to go unchecked by Kos -- won't stop me from writing diaries on topics that I feel are important and need to be discussed.)
(In hindsight, I realize that I shouldn't have put the issue of support for Black candidates/appointments in the diary regarding Russell Simmons and Howard Dean. The issues would've remained separate.)
After I logged off my computer for the day, the Senate voted to confirm Janice Rogers Brown to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C., thus placing her in a position that could put her on the fast track for appointment to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, the GOP could lay claim to two African American appointments to the Supreme Court, in addition to Colin Powell and Condi Rice.
How can the Democrats counter this considering the GOP controls the White House and Congress? And is this even worth discussing? One way is to support well-qualified African American candidates and help them get elected. Why do African American candidates always have to waste time and money fighting in a Democratic Party primary before going on to fight the GOP nominee (in a much weaker position I might add). Why can't African American candidates get the same treatment that Hillary Clinton got?
I found the following quote in a column published in this morning's Detroit News.
[U.S. Senator John] McCain said he is encouraged that the White House and the Republican National Committee are "making a determined effort to reach out to African-Americans." One member of the RNC's task force on the effort is the Rev. Keith Butler, a former Detroit councilman and declared opponent of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Butler and three other Republicans are listed by Campaign & Elections magazine as among at least nine "strong black candidates emerging" for the Senate or governorships.
For the Senate, they are: Butler; Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, R-Md.; former U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md.; U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn.; and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, Democrat.
Among the possible/active gubernatorial candidates: Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, Democrat; Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, Republican; former U.S. Rep. J. C. Watts, R-Okla.; and former Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick, D-Mass.
Conceivably, black candidates could face each other in Maryland's Senate race and Ohio's governor's race. That happened last year in Illinois' Senate race, when Democrat Barack Obama trounced Republican Alan Keyes, who moved to Illinois to run.
Let me point out that Democrats of all races love to lay claim to Senator
Barack Obama, pronouncing their love and support for him. But I haven't forgotten that Dems made Obama fight several white Democrats in a Party primary which could have damaged him had the Republicans put up decent opposition instead of a joke like
Alan Keyes.
Kweisi Mfume and Michael Coleman are undeniably more qualified than their primary opponents and should be supported by the Party, but we all know that's not happening. The DNC is allowing white challengers to divide the Party's base (along with our resources) instead of making it clear to the white challengers that they aren't being good Democrats and will be punished if they make Mfume and Coleman spend time and money fighting in a primary and ultimately lose in the general election. That's not smoke-filled room politics, it's called Party discipline!
An expensive primary fight -- along with white Democrats refusing to vote for an African American Democrat -- is exactly what happened to Ron Kirk when he ran for Senate.
Here's a brief analysis from African American News & Issues.
There no doubt, will be many theories advanced to explain why former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk failed to become Texas' first African-American U.S. Senator. Surely they will include the eSlate glitch that omitted his name at some precincts. Nevertheless, a surprisingly candid paragraph written in Houston's only daily newspaper, by Political Analysis R.G. Ratcliffe, irrefutably explained why a dash of Black power wouldn't change the complexion of the nation's conservative, angry White male-dominated Republican majority Senate.
"Democrats had hoped that by putting a Black, a Hispanic and an Anglo candidate at the top of their ticket they could spur a record minority turnout to offset the majority Republicans have held among Anglo voters statewide for the past two years," Ratcliffe surmised in his post election morning analysis headlined: "Anglos didn't buy Democrat dream."
Race card notwithstanding, but African-American News & Issues would be remiss to not quote an article that tells it like it is, insofar as it concluded, "U.S. Senate candidate Ron Kirk, the former mayor of Dallas and gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez, a Mexican-American businessman from Laredo, dominated their GOP opponents among Black and Hispanic voters Tuesday. But exit polls in Harris County and early vote returns statewide showed Kirk and Sanchez fell far short of the 35 percent of the Anglo vote that Democratic candidates usually get."
In essence, when the rubber hit the road, White Democrats simply didn't support minority candidates as they traditionally support White office seekers, therefore it is fairly safe to allege that racism negates the Democratic process. What else can one conclude when the color of a candidate's skin has historically caused people to cross party lines to vote for people who look like them?
This quote is also from the Detroit News column:
Never, notes Campaigns & Elections, has there been more than one black U.S. senator serving at any time.
Just think how powerful Dems would be if they could say there are two, or even three, Black Senators and they are all Democrats! And we've got a Black governor in Ohio.
Yeah, Dems have to reach out and talk to African Americans, and they have to deliver on our issues. But they also have to do whatever it takes to get well-qualified African Americans in elected and appointed positions of power. To that end, the DNC should clear the field for Mfume, Kirk, Coleman, and Deval Patrick. in the Greater Cincinnati area, there's no logical or legitimate reason why African American Charles Sanders is being opposed in his bid to reclaim the 2nd District (Ohio) Congressional Seat or why African American State Senator Mark Mallory finds himself challenged by a white candidate in the Cincinnati Mayoral race.