Reply #2: Hmmm... [View All]

[qwlauren35]

I'm not sure that it didn't work.

I personally know people who voted for Steele because he was black. Intelligent people. Who wanted to see another black man in the Senate. (I also heard other people call him a Tom, so it's not that we couldn't see what was going on.)

I'm curious to see the demographic statistics for Steele (they're not available yet). He was personable, and articulate. I couldn't vote for him because I could not have voted to put a Republican in the Senate - it was just too critical. But I'm not sure that all of Maryland's black voters felt that way.

Now, if Mfume had beat Cardin, Steele would have lost the entire black vote... but then, I have no doubt that other issues would have come up around Mfume's *name* as well as his background. I was a staunch Mfume supporter and campaigner, but I don't doubt that some Marylanders would not have been able to accept all of his past.

Can't comment on the other races, but I'm not quite sure that the Republican strategy is "failing". Because the more I think about it, the more I wonder if the real purpose is to win the black vote, or rather to get black candidates major name recognition in an area, so that they can be appointed to positions with less scrutiny. Black folks seem to rise in the Republican party BY APPOINTMENT. It's rather interesting what that says. Clearly we black voters aren't choosing them. But it doesn't stop us from seeing them, and seeing who is putting them in power. The Republican administration has now had two black Secretaries of State; it's not going to just disappear from our minds.