To: The Phoenix who wrote (24296 ) 3/21/2000 10:58:00 AM From: long-gone Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 63513
Black GOP Candidates Seek to Oust Democrats By Ben Anderson CNS Staff Writer 21 March, 2000 (Editor's note: this is the first in a four part series on African-American GOP candidates running for Congress.) (CNSNews.com) - Nine African-American Republican congressional candidates are seeking to oust incumbent Democrats in the 2000 election, most of whom are citing what they consider to be the oppressive philosophies of the left as the reason for their exodus to the Republican Party which all say offer economic freedom and personal empowerment. Republicans believe its ability to attract strong African American candidates could signal the beginning of a shift of black voters away from the Democratic Party back to the party of Abraham Lincoln. The majority of the nine black GOP congressional candidates, in exclusive interviews with CNSNews.com, said they left the Democratic Party because it offers false hope with hand-outs and social programs that simply exacerbate the social ills they were meant to solve. In many instances, the candidates maintain, the Republican Party offers a contemporary form of emancipation. House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts (R-OK), currently the only black GOP Member in Congress, predicted shortly after his election that the country would soon see African-Americans following in his footsteps. "We're hopeful that Chairman Watts will be the chairman of the Republican Congressional Black Caucus," Watts' spokesman Bill Shapard told CNSNews.com, referring to a caucus that while it currently does not exist could become a reality (cont)conservativenews.org \Politics\archive\200003\POL20000321a.html