More Petard Hoisting for the Democrats
Betsy's Page
Racial politics used to be a sure fire winner for the Democrats. But it has led to some complacency on their part and blacks aren't appreciating being taken for granted. Recently I blogged about discontent among the Congressional Black Caucus about how William Jefferson was being treated by the House Democratic leadership. Another sign of the Democrats taking their monopoly on the black vote for granted is happening in Maryland where the Democratic primary for running for Paul Sarbanes' seat in the Senate is being fought over by Kweise Mfume, former head of the CBC and the NAACP, and Ben Cardin, a white congressman. As Lee Hockstader writes in a piece in the Washington Post that seems to place all the blame on a potential Democratic loss of what should be a sure bet for them,
But in his current incarnation, running in the Democratic primary for Maryland's open Senate seat, Mfume has declared war on his own party. The Democrats' sin, in his view, is to have turned their backs on his candidacy -- and on the aspirations of black Democrats.
"The party has to practice what it preaches," he says. "We preach inclusion, but when the test comes, [Democrats should] at least fake it."
His indignation at the party leadership's almost blanket support for his primary rival, Rep. Ben Cardin, may play well with his natural base: black voters, who make up almost 40 percent of Democratic primary voters in Maryland. But party chieftains are increasingly anxious that if he wins the primary he will lose the general election to Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a laid-back black Republican who was personally wooed by President Bush and embraced by the state GOP. In their view, Steele -- unthreatening, sociable, a former altar boy -- would play better with moderate white swing voters who might be unnerved by Mfume's youthful history, which includes pistols, switchblades and 13 arrests while he was still a teenager.
That leaves some Democrats feeling damned if they do and damned if they don't -- that is, risking the erosion of a core constituency if Mfume doesn't win the primary, and, if he does, risking the loss of a Senate seat in one of the nation's more dependably Democratic states.
The Democrats were so disheartened by the idea of Mfume being their candidate in the Senate campaign that they withheld support and endorsements until they could get a white candidate. Now, they fear that their ungrateful black voters in Maryland might not appreciate that the party dissed their candidate that they might stay home or, even worse, vote for the GOP candidate, a black man. Michael Steele has to be the Democrat Party's worse nightmare. And they can't figure out if they have more luck going against him with a white candidate or a black one. And their dithering is not making black voters any more confident that their support for the party is not being taken for granted.
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