LAT: Minority church leaders backing away from GOP

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outreach24oct24,0,2344683.story?coll=la-home-headlines

A major effort to draw Latinos and blacks into the Republican Party, a central element of the GOP plan to build a long-lasting majority, is in danger of collapse amid anger over the immigration debate and claims that Republican leaders have not delivered on promises to direct more money to church-based social services.

President Bush, strategist Karl Rove and other top Republicans have wooed Latino and black leaders, many of them evangelical clergy who lead large congregations, in hopes of peeling away the traditional Democratic base. But now some of the leaders who helped drive Bush to victory in 2004 are revisiting their loyalty to the Republican Party and, in some cases, abandoning it. "There is a fissure, and I doubt it will be closed in this election," said the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., a Republican who founded the annual National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast that has featured Bush every year since 2002. His Philadelphia-based Esperanza USA boasts a national affiliate network of more than 10,000 churches.

The Latino backlash has grown so intense that one prominent, typically pro-Republican organization, the Latino Coalition, has endorsed Democrats in competitive races this year in Tennessee, Nebraska and New Jersey. The coalition is chaired by Hector Barreto, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush; its president is a former strategist for the Republican National Committee.

The disaffection comes as Republicans face a challenge in building enthusiasm for the upcoming election among white evangelicals and other conservatives, who have been the core of the GOP's political base.

Taken together, the unhappiness among these groups could threaten GOP hopes of minimizing losses in the Nov. 7 congressional election and may undercut the party's goal of keeping the presidency in 2008. The Latino Coalition, for example, has endorsed the presumed Democratic presidential front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), in her reelection bid this year.

They woke up.

About time they woke up that the Repukes were using them as suckers.

Utterly. Without conscience. Used mockingly, disrespectfully, cynically.

The ones who will be making out from the _Bush programs will be people who look like _Bush.

Republicans have NEVER meant to bring help to the helpless, comfort to the suffering.

resulting in social cuts for the poor. Most churches don't like that choice.

I have no sympathy for them -- as I've read several places, most recently in the book "Righteous," many minority Christians became single-issue voters: they voted GOP because of their anti-gay prejudice. Some also because of abortion, but mainly because of the disgusting attack on gays. I can't understand people whose civil rights are spat on every day turning around and spitting on someone else's rights. *sigh*

It was very disheartening for me when I realized years ago the amount of the violent homophobia within the African-American Christian community. E' Lynn Harris wrote an excellent essay on this very thing in The Advocate a while back.

I'm not entirely sure we should be believing the LA Times. After all, they were convinced that Arnold didn't have a chance in the recall.We thought that the redistricting of CA the last time was a good thing in that it almost guaranteed that the Dem seats were almost permanent Dem seats and the GOP seats were almost permanent GOP seats. Means that any temporary shifts of blacks and latinos to the GOP might helped in statewide or national races, the return to the base, won't make a difference in any of the already safe Democratic congressional races.

And the Dems in CA have for one of the first times in many years put two losers up for top jobs, normally a Republican tactic. Phil Angelides and Governor Moonbeam, To win in CA you need the party base and a fair portion of the moderate middle. Which is why we have been winning, but we ended up with Gray Davis agains an even less lackluster opponent. He pandered to some interest groups and got tossed on his ears, by Arnold, how bad could you be to get beat by Arnold, and look what happened to Bustamante.

The LA Times not withstanding, I don't see any major changes on the Congressional levle, and I don't see Moonbeam winning. He wants to be Attorney general after Rose Bird and presiding over the massive rate increases in homicides and other crimes in Oakland? the only thing we have going for us is that more Repubs are shooting themselves in the foot worse than we are.

PROBABLY CAN'T PUSH HIMSELF BACK FROM THE DINNER TABLE.
ANOTHER VIEW OF CORRUPTION!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

...Rose Bird happened a long, long time ago. She was railroaded out of office, because she was against the death penalty -- a position that I, and many (but not all) progressives share.

As far as Jerry Brown "presiding over the massive rate increases in homicides and other crimes in Oakland", please read up on your national crime stats. You will find that overall, cities saw a decrease in crime during the '90's and have seen increases in the last 3 years or so across the board. In other words, Oakland's crime problem, while deplorable, is hardly unique to that city.

In any case -- welcome to DU!

Clergy and other leaders say promises haven't been kept.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
October 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — A major effort to draw Latinos and blacks into the Republican Party, a central element of the GOP plan to build a long-lasting majority, is in danger of collapse amid anger over the immigration debate and claims that Republican leaders have not delivered on promises to direct more money to church-based social services.

President Bush, strategist Karl Rove and other top Republicans have wooed Latino and black leaders, many of them evangelical clergy who lead large congregations, in hopes of peeling away the traditional Democratic base. But now some of the leaders who helped Bush win in 2004 are revisiting their loyalty to the Republican Party and, in some cases, abandoning it.

"There is a fissure, and I doubt it will be closed in this election," said the Rev. Luis Cortes Jr., a Republican who founded the annual National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast that has featured Bush every year since 2002. His Philadelphia-based Esperanza USA boasts a national affiliate network of more than 10,000 churches.

The Latino backlash has grown so intense that one prominent, typically pro-Republican organization, the Latino Coalition, has endorsed Democrats in competitive races this year in Tennessee, Nebraska and New Jersey. The coalition is chaired by Hector Barreto, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bush; its president is a former strategist for the Republican National Committee.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-outreach24oct24,0,2935499.story?coll=la-home-headlines

I've never heard of that. :sarcasm:

TlalocW

before the generational cement sets, and it takes a lot worse to make people change their family patterns of thinking and voting.

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Latino voters were probably getting pretty tired of showing up for a Repuke event and being asked for their green card ... despite speaking better English than the GOP member and having lived in the US for at least 2 generations ...

That's the thing that bothers me about this story. I hope that black church leaders aren't backing away from the GOP simply because they didn't get their share of faith-based initiative dollars. There are so many other reasons to avoid the GOP.

the checks were never sent

The Rev. Eugene Rivers, a Boston Pentecostal minister and one of about two dozen black clergy invited to a series of White House meetings with Bush, said Friday that black leaders had been wooed with assurances that their social service groups would receive money from the president's faith-based initiative. But, Rivers said, the bulk of the money had gone to white organizations, leaving black churches on the sidelines

and this time, the con men got conned. I have no sympathy for those pulpit-dwelling grifters. Fuck them.