The unspoken racial factor
Florida's Democratic senatorial candidate is black, and this matters
The unspoken racial factor
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Now that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has officially decided to bolt the Republican party and run for the U.S. Senate this fall as an independent, thereby transforming that race into a fascinating three-way free-for-all, political scribes are naturally speculating this morning about his prospects for victory in November. I actually covered a lot of that ground eight days ago, when Crist was busy mulling his move, so I won't repeat myself now. Nor will I focus on conservative Republican Marco Rubio, the tea party favorite whose Senate candidacy has essentially driven the politically moderate Crist right out of the GOP.
Instead, let's talk today about Crist's likely Democratic opponent, Kendrick Meek. More specifically, let's talk about the key aspect of Meeks's candidacy that very few observers seem willing to discuss:
He's black.
There. How hard was that?
This morning, The New York Times analyzed all three candidates, listing their biggest advantages and their biggest challenges. Inexplicably, while discussing Meek's challenges, The Times mentioned only that he's barely known statewide (he's a congressman from the Miami area), and that he'll need a ton of cash to hike his name ID in the far-flung Florida media markets - but wrote not a word about his race.
Yet that happens to be Meek's biggest challenge, for this reason alone:
Since the Reconstruction era of the 1870s, the number of southern blacks elected to the U.S. Senate is exactly zero.
Below the Mason-Dixon line, black Democratic candidates typically fail to win statewide elections. In recent times, three well-qualified blacks have sought Senate seats, only to come up short: Ron Kirk in Texas (he lost in 2002 to John Cornyn), Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee (he lost in 2006 to Bob Corker), and Harvey Gantt in North Carolina (he lost in 1990 and 1996 to Jesse Helms). Indeed, only three blacks - Republican Ed Brooke of Massachusetts, and Illinois Democrats Carol Mosley Braun and Barack Obama - have been elected to the Senate since Reconstruction ended more than 130 years ago.
(It should be noted that Meek is not yet the official Democratic nominee. He first needs to win a party primary, but his sole rival is real estate billionaire Jeff Greene - best known perhaps for tapping Mike Tyson to be best man at his wedding, and for allowing hooker madame Heidi Fleiss to live at his house for a year. Greene also made big money by shorting subprime mortgages. Meek is expected to win the primary.)
Black candidates tend to fare much better in House races - roughly nine percent of all current House members are black - because those districts have large minority populations. Running statewide is very different, especially in the south, and there's no point in denying the potential racial factor even in pluralistic Florida. Indeed, Jesse Helms infamously exploited the factor when he ran against Gantt; in 1990, Helms ran a TV ad depicting a pair of white hands crumpling a job application, coupled with the on-screen assertion that Gantt supported racial quotas. And in the '06 Tennessee Senate race, Harold Ford was ambushed at the eleventh hour by a GOP ad that featured a winking white woman saying "Harold, call me!"
The Florida race won't feature such crude race-baiting, and a decent case can be made that Meek could break the southern jinx merely by mobilizing the Democratic base and prevailing in a three-way contest with 34 percent of the vote. But it wouldn't be a shock if many white swing voters and white conservative Democrats ultimately decide that they feel more comfortable with Charlie Crist.
I'm not suggesting that race is the sole factor in a voter's decision. Nor am I implying that most white voters are subconsciously racist. I'm just noting the historical record, and suggesting that what is past may well be prologue. At minimum, it's simply nuts to ignore this factor in the Florida race, and the potential challenge it poses for Kendrick Meek.
Comment removed.
Looks like you wanted to bash Southerners today, and were going use any flimsy excuse to get on the subject. Any my response to the first line and a half of your last paragraph is: Yes you are.— jmc
Dear New Owners of the Inky: The current paper is corrupt. It has an agenda. It smears and seeks to destroy all those that do not fit within this agenda. It is not fair. It is not balanced. This so-called journalist is part of this regime. What are you going to do?— CD75- There have been only 4 black US senators...ever! Three were from Illinois (Braun, Obama, and Burris) and one from Mass., who was a Republican (Brooke). DP is ripping southern states for not electing black Senators, but I don't see many coming from the liberal strongholds in the Northeast and West Coast. Weak.— jmc
- Putting aside the fact that Obama won the state of Florida in 2008 we are now to believe that an African American will only lose because of race? Are there any bounds to which the left will go to score cheap political points off of someone's race ? I am amazed at how far you'll go to avoid discussing and debating issues.
- There was an error in my last post. 2 other blacks have been US Senators: Blanch Bruce (1875-1881) and Hiram Rhodes Revels (1870-1871). They were both Republicans from Mississippi (southern state). So of the 6 total black Senators, 3 were Republicans and 3 were Democrats. Stinkin' racist southern white Republicans!!— jmc
- Swede - How long until we hear the mindless drivel Drill Baby Drill ? The rabid right are strangely silent. And as far as Crist is concerned - who do you think the moderate voters would like more - Crist or Rubio ? If I were down there my order would be Crist / Meeks / Nobody / Rubio. I suggest that many of the moderates who will decide the election have Rubio in 3rd or 4th place in this race. Does not bode well for the R's. CD - I must agree that the paper has had an agenda. Wonder how long until Ex Senator Santorum is shown the door and some Progressives are hired ???— FormerGOPer
- Man, Polman wrote that he wasn't suggesting racism and listed the senators elected. You're still trying to defend it. A bit of a sensitive response for something that you're saying has no basis.— HandNik
- "I'm not suggesting that race is the sole factor in a voter's decision. Nor am I implying that most white voters are subconsciously racist." - Of course you aren't, Dick. But then again, considering you just mentioned race 16 times in 12 paragraphs, you may understand why one might become skeptical of your claim.— PhillyTru
- Swedesboro mike should brush up his language skills and then try re-reading the first sentence of the last paragraph. So you don't think writing about a Senate race qualifies as discussing an issue? And Agro, if you're soooooooo tired of these articles, don't read them!
- fomerGOPer- good thinking. Now we can buy even more oil from overseas. Your wisdom is boundless. I tied a windmill to my car but it woulnd't run. Then I tried hope and change and it still didn't run. If only I could use the lies of liberals to fuel my car.— formerObamasupporter
- For gosh sakes, jmc, do you still not understand that the GOP of 1870 and the Dems of 1870 are not the GOP and the Dems of 2010?— Billy Ray Winthorpe
- why don't any of these articles talk about that blacks vote by race when they can? thats pretty much their only criteria when it comes to voting.— mc62strat
- Comment removed.
- I just wonder how many JOBS are going to be lost to tourism, fishing etc from that oil spill ? Was the Gulf spill like the Exxon Valdez accident - PREVENTABLE ??? I just wonder like in the Valdez disaster how many failsafes were NOT done due to cost (like the double lined hulls) ??? It may suprize you - I am not against off shore drilling - I want rules in place to protect the environment and protect OTHER jobs like fishermen. Still - the one good thing about the Gulf spill is that we don't hear the mindless manyta drill baby drill.— FormerGOPer
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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