Blacks: 'It's all about beating Jeb Bush'

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Wednesday, October 23

By John Lantigua and Tim O'Meilia, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Wednesday, October 30, 2002

On the stage of a crowded theater in Overtown, a major African-American neighborhood in Miami, a gospel group is in full rhythm.

You oughta be for him

Yes indeed

You gotta be for him

Yes indeed

You better be for him

Yes indeed

The "him" in that rousing hymn isn't the Lord. In this case, it's Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, and given the latest polls he may need divine intervention to win.

But the polls -- which have McBride trailing by 7 points -- aren't dissuading black leaders in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties from rallying their constituents to vote against their nemesis, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. It doesn't matter that McBride was a third choice for most blacks -- after the two primary candidates he defeated, Janet Reno and Daryl Jones.

"For us, this is all about beating Jeb Bush," says Bishop Victor T. Curry, pastor of the New Birth Baptist Church in Miami, former president of the local NAACP branch and a firebrand leader in the black community. "It doesn't matter who's running against him, we just don't want four more years of Bush as governor."

And for McBride to win, it could all come down to the black vote, both Democrats and analysts say. Democrats estimate they need at least a 60 percent turnout among black voters, as well as other registered Democrats, on Nov. 5.

"It's likely to be a very, very close election, closer than the polls show, and the African-American turnout will probably decide the election," said Florida State University public policy Professor Lance deHaven-Smith.

"They're not going to go and vote for Jeb Bush but I do think they might stay home. That would be a disaster for McBride."

The problem for both McBride and African-American leaders is that McBride is not "her" -- Reno -- immensely popular with black voters, dating to her days as Dade County state attorney.

Black Democratic leaders are left with a candidate voters have little passion for.

"Bill is a good guy and I think he'll do a good job but it's going to take more than that to get out black voters who are feeling disenfranchised," said state Rep. James Henry "Hank" Harper Jr., D-West Palm Beach. "We want to get rid of Jeb. Is that going to be enough?"

McBride hasn't help himself with black voters by turning to them so late in the campaign.

Too little too late? Some black leaders in Palm Beach and Broward grumbled that until two weeks ago they had little contact with the McBride campaign.

"I am concerned that we are not organized and communication is not what it should be," Harper said late last week.

"I've only seen McBride one time," Broward NAACP President Bill McCormick said last week. "He did some quick-fix stuff here in the county not too long ago (Oct. 8). One meeting at the Mount Olive Baptist Church here in Fort Lauderdale. And we haven't seen his lieutenant governor candidate at all. I know a lot of blacks who are voting Republican."

McBride also made a stop in West Palm Beach that day, addressing 500 members of South Florida district of AME churches.

"We're not taking the black voter for granted," insisted Mo Elleithee, a McBride organizer who was recruited from Reno's camp after her defeat. "We intend to have strong presence."

McBride and lieutenant governor running mate Tom Rossin have indeed revved up their appeal to black voters in the past two weeks. McBride appeared at a rally of about 100 mostly black voters at Gaines Park in West Palm Beach Saturday.

"I've been to eight black churches in Palm Beach County in the last three Sundays," Rossin said.

And Democrats do have a tradition of getting out the vote on election day. The party has pledged to spend $1.5 million in that effort, which will include handing out voting reminders, election day phone calls and "Arrive with Five" transportation to polls.

Facing McBride instead of Reno, Bush may have an opening to appeal to black voters.

Julia Johnson, a black lawyer who heads the Bush campaign's "non-traditional voter outreach" -- women, Democrats and blacks -- says Bush will do as well among black voters this year as he did in 1998 when exit polls showed he took 14 percent of the black vote in his victory over Buddy MacKay. But that was a race in which only 47 percent of black voters turned out.

"We're effective working at the grass-roots level," Johnson said. "At a church I attended in Lakeland Sunday, a lot said they had already voted and many had voted for Jeb Bush."

The Bush campaign thinks it has especially made some inroads with black economic leaders.

"The upper-class African-American is potentially recruitable," deHaven-Smith said. "Class overrules race."

But deHaven-Smith does not think Bush will show as well with black voters as he did four years ago. Bush does not have a good history with African-American voters.

During his unsuccessful run for governor in 1994, Bush outraged many black voters during a debate. Asked what he would do especially for black Floridians, Bush gave a curt and impolitic answer: "Probably nothing." He later explained that he wanted to help all Floridians, including blacks, but the explanation did him no good. Blacks voted against him by about a 9-1 margin.

Once he took office, Bush did away with most affirmative action programs in the state, further alienating blacks.

In the 2000 presidential election, blacks went to the polls in record numbers -- 82 percent of black registered voters turned out -- and they voted against his brother, George W. Bush, at rate of about 13-1.

Some say Jeb Bush further alienated the black community during this campaign. Miami-Dade's Curry touched off a controversy when he referred to President Bush as a neo-Nazi shortly before McBride was to appear on Curry's radio program. Jeb Bush demanded that McBride denounce Curry, angering South Florida black leaders.

"Jeb Bush has tried to Willie Horton-ize Bishop Curry," said state Rep. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale. "Just like Bush's father did with Willie Horton against Michael Dukakis, Jeb Bush is doing with Bishop Curry and that has hurt him."

McBride, however, has little history of his own with black voters to campaign on. He points to his work in obtaining $2.1 million in payment to the survivors and descendants of those killed in Rosewood in 1923 when the black town was burned to the ground by whites.

But mostly he's trying to capitalize on the popularity of Reno and Jones, scarcely appearing in public without one or the other or both, especially in Miami-Dade. That, and attacking Bush on issues that resonate with blacks -- issues such as FCAT testing, F-labeled schools and Bush's One Florida plan.

"In a race like this, when people are not familiar with a candidate or haven't examined him or he does not connect with people, you go to the issues," said Mikel Jones, aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar,and an organizer of the Get Out The Vote campaign.

Vote rallies continuing Black leaders are staging rallies and marches to get out the vote, despite the tremendous balloting problems in Broward and Miami-Dade the past two elections, which cost some blacks, as well as other racial and ethnic groups, their votes.

But recent efforts to get out the black vote have met with patchy success. A rally in Daytona Beach Sunday drew only 82 voters to cast absentee ballots, instead of an expected 3,000, while a Saturday rally in West Palm Beach drew 200 people, even though none of the gubernatorial candidates was there.

"We're seeing a real upswing in early voting," said Miami NAACP President Brad Brown. He said about 8,000 people had gone to the polls already.

"If that's a sign, then people aren't discouraged about what's happened the past two years. They are angry as hell."

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2002


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