Obama Relies on Black Pride for Record Turnout in Ohio, Georgia
By Heidi Przybyla
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Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Jeff James and Lonnie Remmer met by chance at a Family Dollar Stores Inc. shop in Cleveland, and Remmer wouldn't let the moment pass.
While standing in the checkout line, James, a 24-year-old forklift operator, told a reporter he may not vote Nov. 4. ``I don't think it's going to matter,'' he said.
Remmer, a 59-year-old parking attendant, overheard him, then followed him to his car to scold him. ``Everybody should vote,'' Remmer said. ``It's something people died for.''
That sentiment adds a powerful emotional overlay to the election as Democrat Barack Obama tries to become the first black president.
Even many Republicans say Obama can count on winning up to 95 percent of black voters such as Remmer and James. The bigger challenge will be to make sure such voters turn out in record numbers on Election Day in Cleveland and other urban centers in strategically important states.
To win, Obama must increase turnout among African- Americans in states such as Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina by at least 10 percent, said David Bositis, a senior research analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based research center.
Historic Candidacy
While some black leaders have criticized Obama's tactics, the pride and emotion his candidacy has aroused in the community make a surge in turnout likely, said former Ohio Congressman Louis Stokes.
``Barack Obama is running the last leg of a political race that started a long time ago,'' said Stokes, 83, recalling the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. Stokes's brother, Carl, was elected the first black mayor of Cleveland in 1967, when blacks were about 37 percent of the city's population.
Democratic officials said they have already registered more than enough new black voters in Ohio, many of them in their 20s and 30s, to compensate for the 118,600-vote margin of defeat of the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
There also are early indications Obama's strategy for transforming those registrations into votes is working. In Georgia, where early balloting has begun, black turnout is up 11 percentage points from 2004. The state publishes daily demographic breakdowns of early voters, and blacks have cast about 213,000 votes so far, about 36 percent of the 585,000 ballots counted as of yesterday afternoon, according to state election officials. In the last election, blacks accounted for 25 percent of the 3.29 million Georgia ballots.
Smaller Cities
In Ohio, the Obama campaign is reaching out not only to traditional black communities around Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, but also to smaller cities that have never been tapped by Democratic candidates, such as Lima and Sandusky.
Many of those targeted are older people such as Ruth Bryant, a 79-year-old retired hospital employee who was born in Alabama during the era of segregation and has lived in Cleveland Heights since 1948.
``Never in my life did I think I'd live to see a black man running for president,'' she said. ``I am so proud about Obama because we've come a long ways. Martin Luther King had to die and all these things happened.''
Criticism
The Obama campaign's strategy for energizing black voters, however, has raised questions among some community leaders. Ohio State Senator Shirley Smith said Obama, 47, is relying on paid staff and unpaid volunteers from outside over local organizers.
``Usually they come to us and say `put your stuff in gear and people in place and do what you do best,' but it's just not happening that way,'' said Smith, 58. ``What most of us want to feel is a very, very big part of this campaign because this is something that we've been fighting for all of our lives.''
This approach doesn't always yield the best results, said Warrensville Heights Mayor Marcia Fudge, who is running for the congressional seat of the late Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones. She cited an Oct. 4 campaign rally for young people in Cleveland's Willard Park that featured NBA star LeBron James and hip-hop artist Russell Simmons, who walked from a school to the board of elections to register young voters.
`Losing Interest'
``It turned out good, but not nearly the turnout that we would have hoped, which is a sign to me that maybe they're losing interest,'' said Fudge, 55. ``There should have been 1,000 young people; maybe there were 200.''
Fudge said Obama is taking a risk by not enlisting locals because many of her constituents look forward to the $50 to $100 a day they can earn working for the campaigns.
``It's hard for people to be enthused about something when they think they've not been treated fairly,'' she said.
Smith, the state senator, said Obama isn't spending much time appealing to inner-city blacks, unlike Kerry and the Democratic nominee in 2000, former Vice President Al Gore.
``When I talk to Barack's campaign in Chicago, I say `just have him come here, not at a college not at some high-falutin' place, but in the inner city, where the black kids can see him, to know he's real.'''
Other leaders said Obama's approach would be effective, even if he ruffled some feathers.
``He's handled it in a way that doesn't scare white people, and that's the key,'' Stokes said. ``He's getting 98 percent of the black vote without standing up in the black community yelling and screaming blackness.''
Doing It Differently
Tom Reynolds, the Obama campaign's deputy communications director in Ohio, said the campaign is dispatching surrogates such as Simmons and actor Cuba Gooding Jr. to fire up young voters. It's also working with the owners of beauty salons and barber shops in black neighborhoods to distribute voting information.
Reynolds said he is aware that the strategy ``is a break with tradition,'' though the campaign believes it is the best way to boost turnout.
``The sheer volume of grassroots volunteers that we have allows us to make that change,'' he said. ``We're doing a lot of things differently.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Heidi Przybyla in Ohio at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 17, 2008 00:01 EDT |
