AlterNet: What's Behind the Republicans Fielding 32 Black Candidates for Congress in 2010?

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Rich Benjamin

What's Behind the Republicans Fielding 32 Black Candidates for Congress in 2010?
Michael Steele's admission that the Republicans have explicitly pursued a race-based 'southern strategy' runs counter to the strikingly high number of black GOP candidates.

April 24, 2010 |


File it under one of those "Duh" statements.

In remarks at DePaul University this week, Michael Steele, the Republican leader, declared that his party hadn't "done a very good job" courting black votes. Republicans, their leader charged, had "mistreated" their relationship to blacks over four decades with a "'southern strategy' that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote."

"Why the hell is Steele, chairman of the RNC (!!), talking about a southern strategy from decades past when today's GOP can win 50 seats in the House," one angry GOP operative demanded by email.

Steele's remarks, and this fresh round of controversy entangling the party, shadow a less reported development. Thirty-two black Republicans, a record-high number, are now running for the U.S. House of Representatives. The South and West, the nation's most diverse regions, field the majority of these candidates: 13 (40 percent) are running in the South and six (19 percent) in the West.

Politically speaking, the group is running in a hodgepodge of districts: Twenty (63 percent) are running in districts that lean slightly or strongly Democratic, while 11 (34 percent) are running in districts that lean slightly or strongly Republican. What's more, the 32 black candidates are running in districts that vary in racial composition: 17 are in majority-white districts, while 15 are majority-minority districts. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/news/146598/what%27s_behind_the_republicans_fielding_32_black_candidates_for_congress_in_2010

[undertakerlives]

1. Damage Control

Since the Tea Party Movement has been rightfully deemed racist by detractors, it's no secret the GOP is going to try to contain those cries by promoting African Americans.

[Xipe Totec]

2. It's the new GOP

[Demeter]

3. Window Dressing

The GOP thinks that by copying superficial physical characteristics of successful Democratic candidates, it too can win office.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is also of such an opinion.

Until somebody gets a clue and a sense of purpose that helps the nation, everybody loses. Winners are those whose policies appeal to the voters--and re-election depends on implementing workable, beneficial policies that improve life for the voters. Somehow in all the chatter, this basic fact has been ignored, and Corporations have been allowed to gut the economy and pulverize the nation. The Corporations must be thrown out of Government, just as Religion was excluded, by Constitutional statute.

[classysassy]

4. The last black(tom) was JC Watts

now thats what this country really need another tom in the house.