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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Kerry urged to do more to attract black voters


Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry gestures next to the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow/Push Coalition and Citizenship Fund Conference in Chicago on Tuesday.
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Washington Post

A month before Sen. John Kerry is to accept the Democratic presidential nomination, African Americans who are experienced in getting out the vote say the candidate has done little to energize a constituency that could help ensure his election.

Although the Massachusetts senator has many black supporters, civil rights leaders and academics are grumbling about his absence from black communities and a lack of top black officials in his campaign.

“You pick up the paper … and you see a picture where he’s surrounded by all whites,” Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who helped run two presidential campaigns, said of Kerry. “That’s sensitive to black Democrats. It raises questions about the lack of blacks and Hispanics in his inner circle.”

Nine out of 10 black Americans voted for former Vice President Al Gore in 2000, following a decades-long trend of crucial support for Democrats. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that Kerry has similar support among black Americans, but Walters and others said he must do more to make sure they vote.

“What (Democrats) usually do is wait until the last minute and try to stir up interest in the black community, which would be a serious mistake,” said the Rev. Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in . “They tend to take us for granted.”

Black Americans, Lowery said in a recent interview, are upset with the Bush administration for double-digit unemployment in their communities, poor schools in the era of the No Child Left Behind initiative and the billions of dollars being spent to fund the war in Iraq, which black Americans did not support, according to polls.

Lowery and other civil rights leaders questioned Kerry’s familiarity with black voters. Over the years the Massachusetts senator has received high marks from the NAACP and National Urban League for votes that supported the civil rights agenda on such issues as welfare reform, judicial nominations and affirmative action, but he hails from a state without a significant black population.

Kerry has made traditional approaches to black voters, such as appearing at African American churches and giving interviews on black urban radio programs. But activists said he needs to do more. A source close to Kerry’s campaign said his closest advisers don’t understand the dynamics of energizing black voters. They “haven’t been sensitive to making him more visible in the black community,” the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.