One of the most-practiced parlor games in Annapolis is placing bets on whether Comptroller Peter Franchot will dare to challenge Governor Martin O’Malley in 2010. If the Comptroller does take the plunge, he may take a lot of black voters with him.
One of the biggest battles in the last general session concerned a proposal by the Governor to collect DNA samples from criminal suspects. The Legislative Black Caucus and civil libertarians protested the idea, claiming that black defendants would be disproportionately targeted. So the Governor struck a deal with them: the bill would be amended to provide for DNA collection only upon indictment, and samples would be expunged if defendants were found not guilty.
But the Legislative Black Caucus and their allies are now charging that the administration’s regulations are weakening their compromise on the bill, especially by not explicitly addressing removal of innocent suspects’ DNA from federal databases. Senator Verna Jones (D-44) of Baltimore issued this unusually strong statement to the Sun: “I am really challenging the O'Malley administration to come forth and put their cards on the table,” said Sen. Verna L. Jones, a Baltimore Democrat and caucus member. “If they were not going to be fair and aboveboard with us, they should not have been in negotiations with us just to make sure that legislation got passed.”
In the meantime, the Comptroller is strengthening his relationships in the black community through his battle against slots. He has been urging black churches to do everything in their power to defeat the referendum, throwing them strong stuff such as: Put it in the church bulletins and fliers, talk to your family members ... so we can take back control of our destiny and vote, “No!”
If that was not enough, the Comptroller lobbed this tidbit to a conference of church leaders in Prince George’s last week: “We see what comes out of Annapolis,” Franchot said. “We know we can't trust them.”
Who is “them,” Mr. Comptroller? The Democratic Party? Its leadership? Or maybe, just maybe... its sitting Governor?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Is Franchot Out-Hustling O’Malley for the Black Vote?
Monday, October 29, 2007
Black Family Alliance
According to the latest Washington Post poll, black Marylanders are more likely than white Marylanders to oppose same-sex marriage. The newly formed Maryland Black Family Alliance has decided to do something to change those numbers:
‘‘About three years ago, when same sex-marriage bans began proliferating the nation, a group of African Americans across the state began saying ‘enough is enough’ and the time is now,” said James, a Rockville resident who ran for the House of Delegates last year.
Same-sex couples argue that the state is denying their right to marry.
For supporters of same-sex marriage, this is an important effort. Liberal anti-discrimination initiatives don't pass the General Assembly without strong African-American support. African-American female legislators have been leaders in the gay rights fight in the state legislature--Sen. Gwendolyn Britt (D-Prince George's) plans to introduce a pro-gay marriage bill in the Senate this year. However, not all of her African-American colleagues feel similarly:‘‘My boyfriend and I feel that we deserve all the rights and responsibilities of marriage,” said H. Alexander Robinson, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a gay rights advocacy group in Washington.
The court’s ruling ended three cases consolidated in Conaway v. Deane, which involved nine Maryland couples.
‘‘When [the lawsuit] didn’t go the way we had hoped, we realized that people don’t quite understand still what we’re trying to do for our family,” said Mikki Mozelle, one of the plaintiffs. ‘‘So, if you can bring understanding to the black community, where there is a lot of division about this, this is a good way to sit down and discuss the issues.”
‘‘I’m against gay marriage through and through, no exception,” said Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Baptist minister, who called the Black Family Alliance ‘‘a loose confederation of individuals talking loosely.”
‘‘Equating homosexuality and civil rights are not an equation as far as I’m concerned,” said Burns (D-Dist. 10) of Woodlawn, one of the General Assembly’s most vocal gay rights opponents. ‘‘Whites can hide their sexual preferences and still get all of the rights that society has to offer. I can’t hide my blackness and get the rights that I’m due, so to say that this is a civil rights issue upsets me to no end.”Black support is crucial for another reason. Any gay marriage bill will almost certainly be petitioned to referendum by the religious right. African-American support is crucial to any effort to win the battle of public opinion key to winning the referendum.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Slot Politics of Ehrlich and O'Malley
Until we learned that Bob Ehrlich had far more passion for campaigning than for governing--something we really ought to have known from his many years as a backbench congressman--one of the great puzzles of the newly elected Ehrlich administration in 2003 was his utter failure to exert himself at all to promote his central campaign promise to bring slots to Maryland.
No slots bill was even introduced into the General Assembly until 60 days into the session when disgusted Democratic Senate President Mike Miller, an avid slots supporter who was dying to help the Republican governor achieve a shared goal. Ehrlich's lack of action was all the more bizarre because Maryland's governor is arguably the most powerful in the nation.
Martin O'Malley has been playing his budget cards close to his vest but he has pulled off a political coup in the laying the groundwork for bringing bringing slots to Maryland. As has now been widely reported, former Montgomery Councilman (now Labor Secretary) Perez was sent on a fact-finding trip to neighboring states to highlight the dollars that Maryland gamblers lose there. Can anyone imagine a less likely advance man for slots than Tom Perez?
Yet, O'Malley has somehow placed the earnest Perez in exactly that role. Comptroller Peter Franchot has lashed out shrilly at Perez but this only guaranteed more press time to Perez's point that the Maryland treasury loses money when Marylanders gamble elsewhere. Moreover, it places liberal Franchot in the awkward position of fighting with a well-known and respected liberal from his home county.
Weirdly, Franchot may be getting more press but aiding rival Doug Gansler. Both politicians have (fairly or not) earned reputations as showhorses rather than workhorses. While Franchot is constantly in the press--sometimes for being in the press so much--newly elected Attorney General Gansler has generally kept his head down even as works at his job and forges alliances around the state. Gansler's recent endorsement of Obama may help him continue alliances with prominent African-American politicians which served him extremely well in the competitive 2006 primary for his current job.
Meanwhile, whether or not one wants to see slots arrive soon in Maryland, we can rest assured that the current governor's political skills are far from atrophied. Slots opponents should prepare themselves for a much tougher fight this time. Although it was not central to his campaign, O'Malley appears to be ready to roll the dice in his effort to minimize any tax increase needed to balance Maryland's budget.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Kudos to Club 2012 in Loudon
Read about a great initative launched by African-American parents in Loudoun County that probably has more potential to help close the racial achievement gap than any government effort as parental interest is one of the key predictors of student accomplishment. Apparently, the NAACP Parents' Council in Montgomery has organized a somewhat similar Sunday Scholars program.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The Political Power of Black Women
Tom Schaller has an interesting column in the Baltimore Sun arguing that black women may well determine who determines the Democratic presidential nomination. Since African Americans vote overwhelmingly Democratic, the black share of the Democratic primary vote is usually higher than the black share of the overall electorate. And black women make up an outsized chunk of the black vote:
Because African-American men not only are fewer in number but also register and vote at much lower rates, black women cast almost three of every five of these votes - 59 percent, to be precise. White women also outnumber, out-register and outvote white men, but the disparity is smaller (53 percent to 47 percent).Two factors help explain why black women outvote black men and a stronger rate than white women outvote white men. Education is the strongest predictor of who votes. Unlike among whites, women are better educated than men in the African-American population. Felon disfranchisement also plays a role. Several states with sizeable black populations disfranchise people with felony convictions. A disproportionate share of blacks, especially black men, have lost their voting rights as a result.
