Annie
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...7.column?coll=chi-news-col&ctrack=1&cset=true
Blacks hearing a new gospel from GOP
Republicans are reaching out to black neighborhood-based churches and pastors to boost their platform and it's working
Published March 6, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Republican efforts to court black voters, helped along by black church leaders, "should be cause for alarm" among Democrats.
That's not me talking. That's Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Al Gore's campaign manager in 2000, writing in the Feb. 28 issue of Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
Brazile, a Louisiana Catholic and the first black woman to manage a major presidential campaign, offers a message to her fellow Dems: Don't get caught nappin' while your competition is standing at your supporters' doors--tappin'!
Black voters have turned away from the party of Abe Lincoln since Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. But these are new times. Black turnout for President Bush grew to 11 percent nationally last November from 8 percent in 2000 and to 16 and 13 percent, respectively, in Ohio and Florida, among other key 2004 battleground states.
After Ken Mehlman, the new Republican National Committee chairman, took office in January, he immediately embarked on a national goodwill tour to widen that black GOP vote. "Among Democrats, Mehlman's efforts should be cause for alarm," Brazile wrote. "... But it could also be a boon to Democrats, who now may finally get serious about trying to figure out the best ways to keep their loyal base intact."
She's right. After years of being taken for granted by Democrats and written off by Republicans, many African-Americans I know, including me, miss the days when we were wooed by both parties. Such bipartisan courting all but ended in the 1960s when the GOP became a haven for many southern segregationists and northern "white-flight" conservatives.
Times have changed. If the GOP can move beyond inviting a few ministers to the White House, as Brazile points out, address job loss and the Bush budget's impact on black families and children, there's a chance for a black Republican comeback, although it won't come overnight...