Republicans, when are you going to get it? Why do you keep treating black folks like we’re so gullible that, if you just put a candidate with black skin, we’ll automatically vote for them? In this past election, you put up Michael Steele for senator in Maryland, Lynn Swann for governor in Pennsylvania and Ken Blackwell (groan!) for governor in Ohio. They all lost by 10 or more percentage points. Why didn’t they get huge support from black voters. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that African American voters are a little more savvy than you give them credit for. We are well aware of the depths to which the Republican party will stoop in order to turn out the more racist elements of their party. We are aware of how averse you are to programs that may benefit poor folks. And, we are quite aware of the tactics employed by your party to suppress our votes. Black candidates from such a party will be seen as enablers of this party and endorsers of its tactics. Perhaps it’s unfair but, it is reality.

But, of course, it still seems that you all aren’t getting it:

“History will show, these candidates represent a new breed of Republican leaders,” said Tara Wall of the Republican National Committee. “This is just the beginning.”

Wall insisted that the Republicans’ sweeping defeats throughout the nation Tuesday would not hinder the party’s future efforts to recruit black candidates.

The RNC had scheduled more than 100 outreach events to mobilize black voters, with more anticipated during the 2008 election.

Ron Walters, a former campaign official with Rev. Jesse Jackson and now a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, said Republicans have to identify candidates based on issues, not skin color.

“They have to have positions that are in line with the black community,” he said. “If they can’t attract the black vote, it won’t pay off.”

Exit polls showed 88 percent of blacks supported Democrats, about the same level of support as in the last few elections.

More than half were dissatisfied and just over a third were angry with President Bush’s administration, figures higher than the general populace.

“The RNC kept talking about them like they (Swann and Steele) were their candidates,” said David Bositis, a pollster with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies which, according to its Web site, polls equal numbers of blacks and other Americans on vital issues. “Both of them got the nomination because the Republicans didn’t have anyone else.”

Meanwhile, black Republican candidates were running in only eight House races, the lowest number since 1990. Democrats fielded 41 black candidates.

“I don’t think there was ever anything there,” Bositis said. “It was (Republican National Committee Chairman) Ken Mehlman saying, breathlessly, we’re doing all these things. …. If you’re desperate, you can take whatever you think might work. They were desperate this year.”

A shame, really. We’ll see if they start to get this over the next couple of years.

Popularity: 3% [?]