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Saturday, September 29, 2007
“No-shows may need to rethink political strategy”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Robbie S. Moore remembers the first time she met Wayne Hill. It was 1988. Hill, then a Democrat, ran for a seat on the Gwinnett Board of Commissioners.
Moore, president of the United Ebony Society, a Gwinnett-based civil rights group, hosted a candidates’ political forum. It rained cats and dogs, but voters attended.
So did Hill, who lost that particular bid.
For nearly two decades, the Ebony Society has been hosting forums, trying to arrange a little face-to-face time between voters and the candidates who want to represent them.
But Moore’s organization keeps running into a pattern of behavior that’s playing out nationally, too. At least when it comes to top GOP contenders.
They’re no-shows for debates put on by, and tailored to, minority concerns. If you watched the GOP televised debate Thursday night, you saw the empty lecterns. They represented those who didn’t turn out - Fred D. Thompson, Mitt Romney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and John McCain. They say they had scheduling conflicts and couldn’t attend the event at Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Maybe so.
Nevertheless, their absence and explanations for staying away have been broadly criticized, even by hard-core Republicans like Newt Gingrich.. The decision, he told the Washington Post, was an “enormous error” and “fundamentally wrong.”
Last year, the Ebony Society had to cancel two forums in Gwinnett due to no-shows. In October 2006, only two of a dozen invited candidates agreed to attend. They were Denise Majette, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for state school superintendent, and Allan Burns, also a Democrat, who was trounced by U.S. Rep. John Linder (R-Ga.).
The absentees, Moore told me, spread ill will.
“It makes us feel like we were not important - that the people and this community are not important enough,” she said. “We started letting [the candidates] know way back in the summer. Some wrote letters and said they couldn’t make it.”
Maybe Republican strategist figure that, in a county so solidly “red,”they don’t need to woo new voters. Maybe they deem the black voting bloc paltry, and comprised of die-hard Democrats. Maybe they view the Ebony Society as small fry, a lightweight with no clout.
Maybe it’s time they rethought their political strategy. Gwinnett’s demographics are changing. Though whites make up the largest group of registered voters (70 percent), a third are ethnic minorities.
“This may mean reaching out to voters that [a candidate] has never reached out to before, and showing up at some forums that, in the past, weren’t worth [a candidate’s] time,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia.
Tavis Smiley, the PBS talk show host, hosted Thursday’s televised debate. In interviews, he said he didn’t believe the absences were due to hectic schedules. Moore understands his frustration.
“The society puts on forums to educate the community and to get to know the candidates,” she said, adding that they have events planned for the 2008 elections. We want the candidates to tell us why we should vote for them.”
Hard to do if you’re absent.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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