Republicans Falter in Outreach to Blacks, Hispanics

The Wall Street Journal

Republicans Falter in Outreach to Blacks, Hispanics
Few Minorities Serve as Delegates At GOP Convention
By JONATHAN KAUFMAN
September 5, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Blacks are scarce here at the Republican National Convention. Of the more than 2,300 Republican delegates who gathered this week, just 36 -- or 1.5% -- were black, the lowest portion in 40 years, according to a study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank that focuses on black issues. That is substantially below the figure in 2004, when a record-setting 6.8% of Republican delegates were black. The number of black Republican candidates running for federal office also has fallen sharply, to about seven from a high of 24 in 1996, according to the study. On an organizational level, just one of the more than 160 members of the Republican National Committee is black, the joint center says.

Officials and delegates here said the figures seem accurate. The Republican National Committee said 13% of registered delegates have identified themselves as belonging to an ethnic minority group, which would include Asians, Hispanics and others, along with blacks. About 24% of the delegates to the Democratic convention last week were black, a record, according to the study. The Democrats have policies to ensure that their delegates reflect the "diversity" of the party, a Democratic representative said. "It's embarrassing," said Michael Steele, a Republican who is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and is African-American. "It's been a failure in strategy and a failure in communication. The party wasn't doing what it was supposed to do." Among the reasons cited by black Republicans and others: a failure to address issues such as inner-city poverty and crime as well as a failure to recruit and develop strong black candidates

The enthusiasm among blacks for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a complicating factor. "This is a different year for us -- many of us come to the race with mixed emotions," said Michael Williams, a black Republican who is chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. "I and many black Republicans share the sense of pride that many blacks have with Sen. Obama's success. But we have significant differences with him in terms of foreign policy and our worldview." Republican outreach to Hispanics is stumbling as well. President George W. Bush won 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2004. While Hispanics generally preferred Hillary Clinton to Sen. Obama during the Democratic primaries, Sen. Obama leads his Republican rival, John McCain, among Hispanics by a 2-to-1 margin in the latest Gallup poll, largely due to anger among Hispanics over Republicans' tough line on illegal immigration.

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Republicans' prospects with black and Hispanic voters matter because Democrats are counting on big turnouts from both groups to win battleground states. In 2004, Mr. Bush received 11% of the black vote nationally, but about 16% of the black vote in Pennsylvania and Ohio -- swing states that could tip the election. In the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 3% of black voters said they would vote for Sen. McCain, less than the 6% Barry Goldwater won when he lost to Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential race.

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Republicans say their outreach was hurt by the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago, which angered many African-Americans.

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It's amazingly clear the republicans have completely written off "minorities" lately.

Back in 2000 and 2004, all I remember hearing was how Bush would "shore up" the hispanic vote with obscene amounts of media time spent in states like Texas, New Mexico and Florida.

This year, they just don't seem to care.

written off blacks and the poor.

They showed their hand and the black community confirmed what they knew the entire time.(well with the exception of the dumbasses that were at the Repug convention).

Then there is the wall and the attack against Mexican migrant workers....many Hispanics realized just who the Republican party was.

Gays! Well Gay's have always known that Repugs hate them! Reagan made sure of that with is refusal to do anything about Aids in the 80's.

Nothing new here...It's just that more people have their eyes open and are seeing what scumbags McCain and the rest of them are.