Racism

As I travel across the country speaking to many groups, I find the same common concern among black Republicans and the black clergy that supported George W. Bush in 2004. Most are not convinced that the Republican Party really feel that it's worth the effort to go after the black vote, and others feel the party do not want or feel that they need the black vote to win.

They cite several reasons for their belief. Please let me share a few of them with you.

They learned that the Bush/ Cheney campaign only spent $2,000,000 to reach black voters during the 2004 election but spent several times that amount on political consultants.

During the campaign, the Republicans courted the black clergy and convinced many that Republicans really wanted to develop a long term relationship with the black community.

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But since the election there has been very little dialogue and virtually no dollars spent to establish that relationship nor has there been any financial investment for outreach programs to the African American community.

Black and white grass-root Republicans have consistently asked for financial assistance to reach the black community, only to hear the party does not have the money. In contrast, they have seen expensive television advertisement on social security reform, on the confirmation of Judge Roberts and on other subjects that are dear to the Republican Party (all paid for by the RNC and/or friends of the Republican Party) and have therefore concluded that reaching the black voter is not a Republican priority.

They say RNC Chairman, Ken Melhman will dialogue with various black groups during an hour long speech but he never backs up his dialogue with dollars or a specific program to reach the entire black community.

Everyone knows votes are not free - they are bought. They are bought with expensive campaign strategies. During each campaign, members of both parties target the voters that they really want with television and radio ads, along with brochures, posters and other campaign literature including the latest books that promote their cause, all costing hundreds of millions of dollars just to get the vote. Unfortunately most of these campaigns target blue collar workers, women voters, and middle class families, but few have ever targeted the Asian, the African American and Latino voters which are all members of these other groups, but with uniquely different issues.

During the week of November 28th, C-Span aired a panel discussion by a group of moderate and conservative