Black Republicans Movin' On Up
By DraftRice2008 Posted in User Blogs — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Much has been made of the GOP's recent effort to reach out to minorities. I applaud RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman for the extraordinary effort he has made to reach out in meaningful ways to communities that have a history of understandable hostility to the Party.President Bush himself should be credited with elevating highly qualified minorities into high ranking government positions. The President has matched the historically high numbers of minority and female cabinet members set by former President Clinton. Moreover, Bush's inner circle of highly trusted and powerful advisors is far more diverse in race and gender than that of any prior American President.
Now, a new generation of Black Republican Leaders is emerging nationwide. Three men in particular are symbolic of this new generation coming of age and running for statewide elective office.
Ken Blackwell
Blackwell is the current Secretary of State in Ohio, making him the head election official in the state. He gained some degree of national notoriety in 2004 when he was accused by some Democrats of trying to disenfranchise poor African American voters (a hateful and untrue accusation).
Unfortunately for Blackwell, he is running for Governor in a very bad year for Ohio Republicans. Outgoing GOP Governor Bob Taft has been forced to plead guilty to corruption charges. Earlier this year, Paul Hackett, an Iraq War veteran and anti-war congressional candidate very nearly defeated a well-financed and well-known Republican in an overwhelmingly Republican district. Now Hackett is running against incumbent Republican Senator George Voinovich. My guess is that Blackwell's Democratic opponent will be Rep. Ted Strickland, who will be able to raise plenty of cash from Washington lobbyists to sling mud all year long.
Blackwell is a smart, likeable candidate who has overcome a lot of to get where he is today. Still, his greatest challenge is ahead of him. If he meets this challenge and becomes Ohio's first African American Governor, everyone will be watching his travel itinerary for trips to Iowa and New Hampshire.
Michael Steele
Steele currently is serving as Lt. Governor in Maryland. He has a reputation as a dedicated true believing conservative in a state that is historically left-leaning.
I've been watching Maryland politics since 1994, when Ellen Sauerbrey came out of nowhere to nearly get elected Governor against Paris Glendening. I think that Sauerbrey (with the help of then-state GOP chairman Michael Steele) started a conservative movement in 1994 that is now yielding a Republican Governor and potentially the first Republican African American Senator in nearly 30 years.
Democrats are running scared from the prospect that Steele will win the seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes. It was recently revealed that Democratic operatives and obtained a copy of Steele's credit report (apparently he is a true man of the people--he owes too much on his credit cards, too).
Of the three candidates profiled here, I think Steele has the best prospect for election. While the GOP is waiting and ready to unify behind Steele the second he announces his candidacy, Democrats do not have a single unifying candidate. The primary promises to be bloody. Open Senate seats don't come around very often in Maryland, and there are a lot of elected Democrats who see this as possibly their last shot. Rep. Ben Cardin, former NAACP chief Kweisi Mfume, and probably others will all be fighting for the chance to win the seat.
Maryland has a significant population of urban African American voters. Republicans and Democrats alike will be watching to see how successful he is as wooing these voters away from the Democratic Party.
Lynn Swann
Unlike Steele and Blackwell, Swann has no prior elective experience. He does, however, have name recognition and a built-in following. Swann was a professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Swann will have to survive a crowded GOP primary, but he is picking up lots of support from conservative activists in the state.
The real test for Swann will come if and when he does win the primary and become the Republican Nominee for Governor. It is very difficult for experienced politicians not to make a fatal gaffe that will be replayed ad nauseum in the echo chamber of 24 hour cable news. Because of who he is, the mainstream media will be on the lookout and willing to exploit any potential gaffe. Even if he runs a perfect campaign, Ed Rendell is a giant in Pennsylvania politics and he won't go down easily.
These three men have all come to this point in history in different ways. Each will, for better or worse, live history in his own way between now and November 2006. Each candidate is very conservative--easily more conservative than me. Nevertheless, even opinions with which I disagree can have value within the context of honest and fair political debate.
I am confident that the Republican Party will benefit from the contributions of these men as much as the broader African American community will benefit from their involvement in both halves of the two-party system.
Just reread the summaries of Swan and Steele. Keep in mind that Blackwell has 30+ years of increasingly intense political experience, very little of which was in safe or secondary positions. Even Cincinnati city council, where he started, was a competitively partisan place on a not insignificant scale.
I did not intend anything in m diary to mean that I did not think that Blackwell could win or that he compared unfavorably to either Swann or Steele.
I merely thought it would be interesting to look at these very different candidates and their very different political situations.
I appreciate your input on the Ohio situation.
Blackwell's just in a weird spot - a borderline but GOP leaning state with a long run of GOP dominance, somewhat exhausted and under attack generally now, and he's more conservative than any of his predecessors at the state level - Taft/Voinovich/DeWine.
Swan and Steele are in more likely blue states and able to run as newcomers/outsiders.
I'm afraid Swan has the toughest road ahead, unless Steele is a complete flop as a campaigner.
They are less likely to win their respective nominations, but City Councilor Butler from MI is running for Senate and Sec. of State Daniels is considering a run for Governor in NY.
is no longer Secretary of State -- he resigned ostensibly to concentrate on his run for Governor. He's apparently has no chance of winning -- the state committee wants a self-financer. Daniels is not wealthy and has never held elective office (and up to a couple of years ago was a registered Democrat).
I was aware of them and should have included them. It is true that he is very unlikely to win the nomination, although not impossible. And the story of a Democrat convert was an inspiring one regardless of one's race. See Reagan, Ronald.
There are a couple of boo-boos in the Blackwell summary. First, it's a bit of spin to go straight to Taft pled "guilty to corruption charges". That's the impression the democrats seek to leave, and they may well succeed, but there are several missing steps in there. Anyway - Blackwell is the GOP candidate most likely to run away from Taft on these charges, and he's probably able to do so with some success.
Second, Hackett's opponent, Jean Schmidt wasn't overwhelmingly well-known or well-financed. She's actually a somewhat weak candidate who survived a multi-candidate primary with an unenthused base against Hackett who got excellent attention from national sources. Also, he's running against DeWine for the senate, but to even get there he has to overcome Sherrod Brown in a democratic primary which is hardly a sure thing.
Finally, Blackwell's ultimate opponent for the governor's seat may be Strickland, and while whoever it is will get plenty of national support and attention, there's still plenty of GOP support throughout Ohio, so it's hardly a case of running from way behind or in a hole of his own creation. He could certainly lose, as could DeWine, but the democrats aren't running particularly experienced veterans or political titans against either of them, which is likely the case in the other two races.