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THE WESTERN FRONT
Republican Steele
Can the GOP now appeal to black voters?
BY BRENDAN MINITER
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
Call it the Northern Strategy. Last week Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman stepped out in front of a crowd gathered for the NAACP National Convention in Wisconsin and coolly announced the death of the hotly debated and controversial electoral strategy successfully used by Richard Nixon in 1968. The "Southern Strategy," as it has become known, helped Republicans win in many states of the former Confederacy in that election by appealing to defecting conservative Democrats.
The GOP's success in what was once the solidly Democratic South came, unfortunately, as some Republicans were "looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization," Mr. Mehlman told the group. "I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
These aren't the first steps Republicans have taken to reach out to black voters. But Mr. Mehlman's speech is an important turning point in reaching out to a reliably Democratic voting bloc. It's also a necessary step if Republicans are going to remain competitive on the presidential level by improving their performance in northern states with large, inner-city black populations. On the same day that Mr. Mehlman spoke to the NAACP, President Bush traveled to Indiana to meet with black leaders and spotlight their volunteer activities. The president also has appointed two secretaries of state--Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice--who are both accomplished individuals who happen to be black.
It's true that only two Democrats--Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton--have been able to pry the presidency out of Republican hands since 1968. But with two relatively close elections under their belts, Republicans can hardly be sanguine about their electoral prospects. After all, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania were once Republican states. Yet today these states represent a treasure trove of voters all but out of reach to the Party of Lincoln unless it can find a way to appeal to minority voters in the industrial heartland.
If this was just a problem for the Republican Party's electoral fortunes, we could afford to say c'est la vie. But important policy questions also hang in the balance and depend on a realignment of black voting to support the black community's changing political interests. That's something to keep in mind as the battle over school choice plays out in Washington D.C., with Democrats in Congress opposing it while black city leaders support it. Or as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are quietly told to get in step with the Democratic Party's march on Wal-Mart, even as many members of the CBC have been grumbling that Wal-Mart is one of a few companies expanding in black neighborhoods and employing a large number of minorities.
One Democrat dismissed Mr. Mehlman's remarks on cable news by saying that it's not a coincidence that all the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are Democrats. No, it's not--when J.C. Watts, a black Republican from Oklahoma, was in Congress, he was actually refused permission on to join the caucus. Unfortunately, their loyalty to the Democrats has come at a steep price for black voters. They're taken for granted by one party and written off by the other--hence the lack of progress on schools, drugs, and urban tax policies that drive employers to the suburbs.
Yet the potential for new alignments won't amount to much unless the GOP can develop comprehensive policies to help black communities or put forward credible candidates to sell them. A successful Northern Strategy will require the GOP to win over black voters with a message of empowerment, ownership and opportunity. Not sure it can work? Well, the new approach is likely to get its first significant test in Maryland's 2006 Senate race.
The Old Line State is now the front line thanks to the rise of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. Unlike Alan Keyes, another black Republican politician to come out of Maryland in recent years, Mr. Steele is not just a gadfly--he's a serious candidate for statewide office who learned political tactics from the ground up. Mr. Steele rose through the ranks in Prince George's County, a D.C. suburb that's home to a million people, and he was key leader when the state GOP was trying to expand its weak foothold in what was a very blue state.
His first advice was something he learned at the knee of his mother: "Shut up and listen." At his urging, Republicans fanned out across the state and dropped in on every public meeting they could find--even those held by the NAACP. They then came back and formulated policies to take to the voters. In 2002 ,the strategy paid off as Robert Ehrlich became the first Republican to win the governor's mansion in decades. His running-mate, Mr. Steele, became the first African-American to win statewide office in Maryland's history, and the GOP has begun making gains in the state legislature too.
Mr. Steele is no accidental Republican. He spent three years studying to be a Catholic priest before entering politics. Less well known is that it was Ronald Reagan's failed 1976 presidential bid that led Mr. Steele to join the GOP.
Reagan lost several early primaries that year and then, now famously, fought it out all the way to the Republican Convention before losing the nomination to President Gerald Ford. Just 17 years old at the time, Mr. Steele admired Reagan's steely conservative message and his tenacity too. So in 1981, when he abandoned plans to become a priest, he already knew he was a Republican--a believer in low taxes, free enterprise and opportunity for all.
Mr. Steele isn't yet a candidate for the Senate, but he set up an exploratory committee last month and he clearly is the favorite of many national Republican donors. His possible candidacy is also already setting off alarm bells for Democrats. They recognize that he threatens not just their power in one state, but the fraying coalition that has allowed Democrats to treat black votes as their birthright.
They won't be giving up the Senate seat--held now by the retiring Paul Sarbanes--without a fight. Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin, for one, is already sitting on a $1.1 million war chest and has announced his intention to seek his party's nomination. But if Republicans show they can become competitive in the Old Line State by expanding their share of the black vote, it will be a political earthquake with ramifications far beyond Maryland.
