Anderson@Large

Election 2010 Postscript

California’s former state treasurer Jesse Unruh once observed, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

It was widely reported the Democratic National Committee budgeted $3 million for African American outreach in the 2010 midterm elections. I am now wondering how much money was actually spent.

National Newspaper Publishers Association Chairman Danny Bakewell told the Final Call:

I talked with Governor (Tim) Kaine myself. We gave him a $2 million budget to begin advertising in every Black newspaper from the first week in September until the last week prior to the election ... I think the Democratic Party spent less than $150,000 in Black newspapers throughout America...

If we’re good enough to elect you, if we’re good enough for you to be able to rely on then we ought to be good enough for you to spend some money with.

Or as Bobby “Blue” Bland would say, Democrats should get their votes where they spend their money.

Rethinking Black Leadership

Since 2003, I have been sounding the alarm about instant groups parachuting into African American communities, dismissing and displacing black voter empowerment groups.

The day after the election, they pack up their sh stuff and leave town. They are not heard from again until the next presidential election.

Meanwhile, black voter groups that are connected to black folks are starved for resources and must make a way out of no way.

During Saturday’s National Action Network rally, Al Sharpton distinguished “leading blacks” from “black leaders”:

Some of the disconnect is when you have appointed leadership…We have gone through a strange era of imposed leading blacks rather than black leaders. They got folks out there talking for blacks that did not come out of a black base or a black community.

There is a difference between leading blacks and black leaders. There is a difference between a black on TV, a talking head that’s not connected to a black body.

Sharpton added:

It is the era of leading blacks. And what we must do is build a young black leadership from a black base. And those that have paid their dues, showed their sincerity, and have a track record even though they are young, we have to embrace them. If not, they will hijack our community with people that are not like us, that don’t understand us, that will dismiss us because that’s their assignment.

Preach, Rev. Al, preach.

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m off to DC to spend the holiday with my brother, Steve.

I want to give a special shout-out to my niece, Cheryl. This too shall pass.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I’ll see you next week.

Who Voted in 2010

Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable, says, “Don’t believe the hype.”

In a recent op-ed piece, Melanie wrote:

It is amazing to me how pundits jump to the same conclusion when Democrats lose that “black folks and youth must have stayed home,” only to find that when the official numbers come out weeks later, it usually turns out to be just the opposite that we in fact voted much higher than exit polls reflected.

Don’t believe the hype, black folks voted!

No matter what the final official black voter turnout shows, we know that it could have been even higher if resources were made available much earlier for our black civil rights, civic sector and trusted voices to do what we do best—get out the black vote!

While the official numbers will not be available for at least a year, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies' preliminary analysis shows that Melanie is spot-on.

Indeed, this Project Vote graphic is worth a thousand words.

Don’t believe the hype. Democrats lost because they were abandoned by independent voters, seniors and white women.

UPDATE: Project Vote’s analysis of the 2010 electorate has been released.

Black Female Voting Bloc Not Receiving the Respect it Deserves

Nearly three weeks after Election Day, they are counting ballots in Alaska and five House races remain undecided.

Still, the 2012 election cycle is underway. Democratic strategists are meeting, planning and plotting.

Black women are also meeting, planning and strategizing. They are determined to change the conversation and demand a seat at the table.

Dr. Boyce Watkins of AOL Black Voices recently interviewed me about black women and the midterm elections. I would like to share some excerpts:

What is the event you’re planning and what is the reason for holding the event?
The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Black Women’s Roundtable is holding a Power of the Sister Vote post-election briefing. The reason is captured by a Ghanaian proverb, “Until the lions have their own historians, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” Given the lack of diversity in the mainstream media, we have to tell the story of black voters and the 2010 election. And the story is, black voters turned out.

Pundits blame low black turnout for Democratic losses. They compare 2010 turnout with 2008, but that is like comparing apples and oranges. Turnout is always higher in a presidential election year. The relevant comparison is 2006, the last midterm election.

Exit polls show black voters made up 10 percent of the electorate, the same share as in 2006. We won’t know the turnout rates until the U.S. Census Bureau releases its report on registration and voting in the 2010 election (in about a year).

Today, Dr. David Bositis, a senior research analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, released a report, “Blacks and the 2010 Midterms: A Preliminary Analysis.” And guess what, y’all -- black voters were in the house.

The bottom line: There was a modest increase in black turnout nationally. There were “impressive increases” in California, Delaware, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Texas. In Pennsylvania and Nevada, there were “small increases.” To be sure, Democrats were hoping for a presidential-year surge of black voters but that didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because Democrats did nothing to make it happen. As National Newspaper Publishers Association Chairman Danny Bakewell wrote, the Democratic National Committee did “too little, too late.”

[…]

What do you expect to see in the next presidential election? How will it affect our community?
I expect President Obama will receive 95 percent of the black vote. That’s a pretty safe prediction given that Democratic candidates typically garner 90 percent of the black vote. It remains an open question whether there will be a record turnout of black voters. Even if 100 percent of eligible black voters turned out and gave Obama 100 percent of their vote, that would not be enough to get Obama reelected.

Obama will have to shore up his base at the same time he reconnects with independents. He has his work cut out for him. A new Politico poll found that only 26 percent of Americans thinks he will be reelected. If the overall unemployment rate is hovering around 10 percent and most Americans still think the country is headed in the wrong direction, then Obama will be one and done.

[…]

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our AOL Black Voices audience?
I would like to share the words of wisdom of soul singer-turned-philosopher James Brown: “Get up, get into it, get involved.” Too often our civic engagement begins and ends with voting. But voting is an event. To have a measurable impact one must stay engaged and get involved. It doesn’t mean that one has to become an activist. I do it because it’s in my DNA.

The Tea Party movement is a model for civic engagement. They made their voices heard at town hall meetings, letters and phone calls to Congress, rallies, etc. They vowed to hold members of Congress accountable to their agenda. And they did.

Read more: http://aol.it/98NF33

Steve Rosenthal Wants a Second Act

In the 2004 election cycle, Steve Rosenthal and Harold Ickes burned through $200 million. When the votes were counted, all they had to show for their record spending was the election of a Democratic secretary of state in Missouri and a handful of state legislators.

A former political director of the AFL-CIO, Rosenthal arrogantly claimed that minority groups, including the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, were “ineffective, inefficient and unaccountable.”

Many CBTU members wore this button in protest.
On Sept. 17, 2004, the Washington Times published a news story, “Black voter groups lose money, control to 527s; Demand resources ‘to do what we do best.’”

In a letter to the editor, I wrote:

Black leaders are rightly frustrated that funding has been siphoned away from groups that closed the racial gap in voter registration and turnout in favor of instant organizations that have parachuted into black communities.

Money is not the sole issue; it’s also about respect. Many progressives blamed low black turnout for Democratic losses in the 2002 midterm elections.

Steve Rosenthal, chief executive officer of America Coming Together, dismissed black voter groups as “inefficient, ineffective and unaccountable.”

But get this: The Census Bureau recently reported there was an increase in black turnout in 2002. Black turnout was 39.7 percent in 2002 compared to 39.6 percent in 1998, the last midterm election.

And in the mother of all turnout battles, black voters—mobilized by black elected officials, black union members, black clergy and black voter groups—enabled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu to withstand the Republican Party’s best shot and win the Louisiana senate runoff election.

Landrieu’s reelection and Kathleen Blanco’s surprising win in Louisiana’s gubernatorial runoff election remain the only statewide Democratic upsets since the 2000 election debacle. Both victories predate the rise of 527s, including America Coming Together and the Media Fund.

It is an open question whether ACT, which is “big-pimpin’” black voters, will be able to turn the trick. On Nov. 2, we all will know the answer.

The whole world knows the answer. America Coming Together fell apart the day after the 2004 election.

But Rosenthal is back.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

Longtime Democratic organizer Steve Rosenthal is hosting the Monday meeting with many of the figures behind America Coming Together, an independent operation that financed voter outreach in 2004, to discuss the prospects for creating a new campaign vehicle for 2012. Among those expected to attend are Ellen Malcolm, the founder of Emily’s List, which backs candidates who support abortion rights, and Anna Burger, the vice chair of the Democracy Alliance.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “There are no second acts in American lives.”

With his 2004 record and toxic brand among black leaders, there should be no second ACT for Rosenthal.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports:

Though not done as an alternative to Brock, other big-named operatives within the Democratic tent have also begun discussions about a similar third-party outlet. On Monday, longtime organizer Steve Rosenthal is set to host a meeting bringing together several of the figures responsible for the last major independent operation: America Coming Together [ACT]. Attendees, as the Los Angeles Times first reported will include Ellen Malcolm, the founder of Emily’s List; Anna Burger, the vice chair of the Democracy Alliance; longtime Clinton adviser Harold Ickes; and labor leader and Obama ally Andy Stern.

“It is really just to get a group of people together to talk about whether or not we need something like this again,” said one official involved in the meeting. “In 2004, we created a center of gravity and it covered various aspects and places of the party... to some extent Rove and Gillespie did that in 2010.”

[...]

There are no dollar figures that either Brock or Rosenthal’s groups have discussed in terms of what they are hoping to raise and spend in 2012. The $200 million that ACT and Media Fund (another independent-Democratic arm in 2004) raised two presidential cycles back is a pipe dream. But $50 million has been thrown out as a baseline number.

Stay tuned.

Power of the Sister Vote’s Bottom Line

Yesterday, I moderated the Power of the Sister Vote post-election briefing. I will post a report of the event in the coming days.

Right now, I want to share one of the takeaways: Show black women the money.

The defunding of black voter empowerment and election protection groups remains a sore point. I asked the panelists whether they had been invited to attend the meeting of the Democracy Alliance.

The silence was deafening.

Democracy Alliance is a group of major donors whose mission is to “build progressive infrastructure that could help counter the well-funded and sophisticated conservative apparatus in the areas of civic engagement, leadership, media, and ideas.”

It bears repeating that black voter empowerment groups, most of which are led by black women, are responsible for closing the racial gap in voter registration and turnout.

As Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, observed:

We never would have come this far without black women.

Indeed, black women had the highest turnout rate in the 2008 election.

A new report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, “Blacks and the 2010 Midterms: A Preliminary Analysis,” found that “the black vote in 2010 was three-to-two female to male as has been the case in many recent elections” (emphasis added).

So, you can imagine my dismay when I read the Democracy Alliance reportedly is looking to “shuffle funds into a progressive infrastructure that will take on the tasks that the president can’t or won’t take on.”

The Huffington Post reports that Anna Burger said:

People are determined to help build a progressive infrastructure and make sure it is there not just in the months ahead but one that will last in the long term. Instead of being pushed over by this election it has empowered people to stand up in a bigger way.

Black women are also empowered. They will not be pushed aside or settle for scraps. Instead, they will demand a seat at the table.

Major donors must be mindful that no Democrat -- progressive, moderate or the flavor of the month -- can win without the support of black women voters.

That’s the sisters’ bottom line.