The Worst Time in the World to be a Black Republican Candidate
The Associated Press' Kristen Wyatt says some candidates must run against not only an unpopular president and war at next Tuesday’s ballot box, but also prejudice.
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Lynn Swann, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell, and Maryland senatorial candidate Michael Steele—all black Republican hopefuls—trail Democratic opponents in recent polls.
Wyatt quotes North Central College political scientist Stephen Maynard Caliendo:
“The way racism works now, it’s not out in the open. We have this deep-seated predisposition. It’s not really a Republican thing; it's just that white folks are predisposed to think that black folks don’t have what it takes to make a good leader. Now, that’s subconscious. Nobody will say that.”
But Peter Groff, executive director of the University of Denver’s Center for African American Policy, tells Harrisburg, Pa., Patriot-News writer Sharon Smith something different:
“It looks like it’s shaping up not to be the year of the Republican, regardless of color. The timing was just wrong and for so many other Republicans. The numbers are basically the same. It would be hard to say Pennsylvanians refused to vote for an African-American for governor.”
The Washington Post’s Robert Barnes and Matthew Mosk quote David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, similarly:
“Michael Steele’s problem is that...he’s a Republican at the absolute worst time in the world for a politician to be a Republican.”
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