Guest Post From Mark Brunswick: What Chris Bullock Doesn’t Say
Reverend Christopher Bullock has an interesting opinion article on African-Americans and the November elections in the News Journal today. Here’s the link, http://www.delawareonline.com/comments/article/20101011/OPINION07/10110313/African-Americans-increasingly-disillusioned-with-political-process. I agree with most of what he says but I think there’s more.
After many years of significant political experience based in the African-American community, I have concluded that most candidates and elected officials have a set formula for reaching our voters:
- What churches should I be going to?
- How much Walt’s chicken should I bring to the seniors?
- How much time can I get on channel 28?
Wilmington is expected to be the engine of the Black vote and it’s the place where most statewide candidates will make their primary investment in black polity—street money on Election Day. Unfortunately, despite the growing evidence of diminishing voter turnout and its influence on elections there is more interest in buying voter loyalty than cultivating the electorate.
What’s the difference? How campaigns are staffed is one instance. It is rare to find a senior level minority staffer on a statewide campaign. My experience in seeking work in campaign planning and strategy is that I don’t even get the courtesy of a return phone call and I am not alone in the experience. The preference is always for someone who can answer those three key questions.
The 2000 census documented that 90% of the African-Americans who moved into Delaware reside outside of Wilmington. That trend continues. The Newark-Bear belt, Dover and a Sussex County belt running from West Rehoboth to Georgetown, Seaford and Milton all contain significant pockets of minority voters. Employing a broader strategy for the minority vote just makes sense; however, the non-sense of this election cycle is not to stimulate white anger. The lack of significant GOTV planning targeted at minority voters has been the talk among the many of the people I’ve done voter work with for many years. African-Americans, after all, vote as a product of divination and the spirit of Martin Luther King!
African-Americans face far more critical consequences from the outcomes of the local elections. There is the opportunity for Chip Flowers, the candidate for State Treasurer, to become the first African-American elected to a statewide office. That could draw out the Black vote and help a host of local elections. The popular wisdom is that State Treasurer is an office the Democrats are prepared to lose.
It’s an open secret that Wilmington will lose a city dominated State Senate seat in reapportionment next year. The loss of that seat will not only mean the dilution of minority influence in Dover, it will also have an impact on the fortunes of Organized Labor. Unfortunately, Organized Labor is only invested in the short- term vision of cultivating the votes of its members for Chris and John this year. They seem satisfied with their losing influence on other races on the ballot and in Dover.
Chris and John will win next month. They are the best bets for all of Delaware. However, given the lax approach to the value of the African-American and minority vote in general, our communities need to re-evaluate the stakes we bring to the table.
Tags: African-Americans, Local Races, Wilmington
What has decades of Democrat control of state, county, and city government done for the black community? Is the education system any better? How about job opportunities? Maybe less drugs and murders? Except for a few opportunists who have sold their neighbor’s votes, I don’t see many positive results. The GOP ignores them twelve months out of the year, and the Democrat Party pays them lip service every other November. Maybe it’s time to try another flavor of politics. The Delaware GOP has tried some ham-fisted outreach to the African-American community which has always been subverted by black leadership. Reverend Bullock should be familiar with this. At one point in time he was a rising star in the GOP tasked as the go between with the African-American community and the DE GOP.
Nicely written. The gentleman is right on on both the demographics and the tactics that are preferred. This has not changed much since I canvassed the city for Henrietta Johnson a longgggg time ago. In my left pocket were several packs of singles and my right were the 5’s for the big wheels. While I formed lasting relationships over the years in the community that was only coincidental to my assignments.
Today we see the mass incarcaration of black youth. We see gross underemployment. While the locations have shifted to the burbs and Sussex the substandard housing is much the same and often worse. The burbs also have an isolating influence due to inadeaqauate or non existent public transit. The despair among my fellow inmates during my “vacation” was almost visible in the air. The black community is more marginalized than it has been in the past 35 years. Just sayin’
Nice Article Mark
Give me a call some time my number hasn’t changed
Andy
Unfortunately, despite the growing evidence of diminishing voter turnout and its influence on elections there is more interest in buying voter loyalty than cultivating the electorate.
This problem is NOT one sided. Part of this is about an electorate that *tolerates* its politicians approaching it as something to be bought — not as a real civic constituency with genuine needs that need to be met. This is a tough negotiation, though — the African-American community doesn’t command much in terms of dollars to fund candidates and they aren’t particularly incentivized to get out to do the kind of legwork that candidates can represent real muscle for a candidate.
I just worked on two campaigns — one for an African-American woman (Stephanie Bolden)and the other for a white friend. My white friend had a stream of friends and people she had worked with who were a river of volunteers and help. My African American friend had fewer such volunteers — even though constituent service is probably her best attribute. We can spend all day working out why this is, but some part of it has to do with the *lack* of leadership by so-called African American leadership in Wilmington. Because they have exactly the same approach to their own community as do the white candidates Mark discusses. Because it is all about signaling that you are part of the club — not that you will be a politician that might actually do much to improve the community.
One of the things that I saws working on Stephanie’s campaign was the occasional Channel 28 show. I call this Fox News for Black People in Wilmington. None of it especially useful except to define the contours of the club. Now, Channel 28 went to wall-to-wall war against Stephanie Bolden’s candidacy against Hazel Plant. The usual suspects of the Delaware Black Caucus showed up week after week to demonize her and to lionize Hazel Plant. It was a TV campaign that seemed to presume that the Delaware Black Caucus knew better than voters of the 2nd District who could best represent them. I saw Chris Bullock himself take his turn at the demonizing, and largely breaking every bit of the 8th Commandment while doing it. That was not an act of leadership. That was a defense of the completely self-serving status quo. But that is what happens when you align yourself with the usual bullshit rather than work at making that bullshit more accountable to the very real needs of the community.
There are people who will dismiss this as partisanship on behalf of a friend. Those people will be full of shit. I wasn’t friends with Stephanie before I agreed to help her, but we are now. And while I don’t live in the 2nd District, I do think that voters get to choose their representation, not the Delaware Black Caucus. And I watched the Delaware Black Caucus and their enablers spend more time trying to keep one person OUT of office than they have EVER spent fighting for their community.
If the African American community in Delaware doesn’t take its political life especially seriously, it doesn’t make much sense to ask why no one else does.
I can’t forget Carper and Castle’s photo in the paper getting 12 million for wealthy beachfront home owners for sand replentishment but not a dime for Jackson Street Boys and Girls Club. Not a dime for Camby Swim Club. Not a dime for Peoples Settlement. The sorry political State Senators Henery, McDowell, Marshall,and Representatives Plant & Keeley don’t care about our youth being sentenced to life on the street. Marshall is so proud that he has announced for Mayor. What balls. We deserve what we elect.
Delaware is still the plantation state make no mistake about it.
George Wallis is still right,”Ain’t a dimes worth of difference between them”.
Here’s the way democrats keep other challenging democrats from getting elected. If you run in the city against any incumbent you can expect McDowell, Marshall, Kelly, and Helene Keeley to support the incumbent. They go behind any challengers back and talk against the challenger. They use their influence on voters to support the incumbent with whisper campaigns and smears to make sure they cover each others ass, and keep any challenger from getting the office. Its been done for years in this City. The audacity of Bob Marshall running for Mayor is truly obscene. That man has done nothing for the citizens of Wilmington, has used the elderly in several elderly homes in the city to do what he wants. He got all his dirty tricks from his Uncle who used an iron fist against the citizens of Wilmington. Anyone but Marshall a true double dipper as is Helene, Kelly, and Henry.
So, out of curiosity, how does this explain Stephanie Bolden knocking off Hazel Plant? Had Hazel run afoul of this axis of power?
This wasn’t meant to explain her win….. just to note that the shallow treatment of the African American community here is not limited to white candidates.
I think Stephanie won because she was out and about showing people she was healthy and engaged enough to be given a shot at the job. And she ran a respectful campaign – she returned none of the mean spiritedness directed at her.
Sorry Cassandra – I was directing my question to Pls Louise. I wanted to see how the Plant-Bolden race fit into the Wilmington Axis of Evil, as detailed by Pls Louise. It may fit well, I just don’t know. I am relatively ignorant about city politics.
Yes you Geek, ignorant of city politics. The folks that supported Bolden did so on the qt…because they didnt want to offend the Plant family. I supported Bolden and would do it again because Hazel is so sick she cant even do a TV show. She shouldnt have been in the race in the first place sick as she is. The community decided to go with Bolden (quietly) so the district would have some real representation. Hazel hasnt made it to Dover in sometime. She was too sick to even reach out to the voters and depended on Norman Oliver to get the vote. Oliver’s reach in Wilmington ended a long time ago, when he moved out of the city.
Anyone who is not an incumbent in state legislature can depend on the other incumbents to make sure no challenge wins. The Plant case is the exception to the long standing Leo Marshall rules.
“I watched the Delaware Black Caucus and their enablers spend more time trying to keep one person OUT of office than they have EVER spent fighting for their community.”
Similar expenditure of effort was clear in the campaign against Flowers.
Ask any woman running for office or in office in Delaware, how the Democratic Party treats them? Yes, women are treated differently than male candidates. This question has been asked of the party several times by several women, no response. Maybe its time the Democrats in Delaware start ridding their own party of the hangers on, do nothing, double dippers and start replacing these incumbents (serving beyond 12 years) out of office.
No Geezer, members of the Black Caucus knew about Flowers and his women problems and knew it would come out before the general election, thereby giving the seat to a republican. WDEL certainly had a hand in delivering up Flowers as THE democratic candidate. You certainly were aware of the Flowers allegations as were most here at DL, and yet you continued to support him. So if Bonini wins, blame it on yourselves and your lack of knowledge about city politics, and the behind the scene scams led by the Stooge Journal. Do you honestly think Cohen just “found out about Flowers”? Why didnt she write the article before the primary? Because that wasnt part of the game plan.
“thereby giving the seat to a republican.”
This is pure speculation. This isn’t getting any traction so far, the only history of such allegations in Delaware indicates that raising it backfires, and you conveniently ignore the fact that Velda was about as exciting a stump speaker as a potted plant would be.
“You certainly were aware of the Flowers allegations as were most here at DL, and yet you continued to support him.”
As far as I’m aware, I’m the only person either here or in the media who raised any objections at all to Chip Flowers’ candidacy that weren’t purely ad hominem attacks or on his uppitiness for daring to run when Velda wanted the job. So take that allegation and shove it up your handiest orifice.
“So if Bonini wins, blame it on yourselves and your lack of knowledge about city politics,”
City politics? What about this thread don’t you get? You clowns continue to fight over an ever-shrinking cesspool, one that you have for generations taken money to clean up and then resolutely spent without addressing a single problem in any meaningful way.