I love the revisionist history here. Chip Flowers should definitely get credit for being the first African-American candidate elected statewide. And he got there because Velda Potter’s bid for the job imploded and because he ran a smarter campaign — not because the GOP imploded that year. I don’t even know who ran for Treasurer in the General that year. And it isn’t as if the local GOP imploding hasn’t looked like Groundhog Day, anyway. The signal in this piece is that Lisa Blunt Rochester is somehow a more acceptable “first” than Chip Flowers was.
I love the revisionist history here.
Chip Flowersshould definitely get credit for being the first African-American candidate elected statewide. And he got there because Velda Potter’s bid for the job imploded and because he ran a smarter campaign — not because the GOP imploded that year. I don’t even know who ran for Treasurer in the General that year. And it isn’t as if the local GOP imploding hasn’t looked like Groundhog Day, anyway. The signal in this piece is that Lisa Blunt Rochester is somehow a more acceptable “first” thanChip Flowerswas.