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Democrats use race-baiting fliers to spur black vote
The Washington Times
S.A. Miller
10/29/2014
Excerpt:
The spate of campaign fliers that use images of lynchings, Jim Crow laws and the recent racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, to urge blacks to vote in next week’s election somehow failed to grab the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP headquarters in Washington wasn’t prepared to answer questions about the fliers and mailers circulated in black communities in Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina, despite widespread news coverage of it for the past week.
“Can you send the photos of the literature and tell me the exact states they have been distributed in so that I can contact our field offices?” said NAACP spokeswoman Jamiah Adams.
She did not respond after receiving the information.
Bob Ross, president of the NAACP branch in Prince George’s County, Maryland, also wasn’t familiar with the race-baiting campaign literature.
“We haven’t seen it and we haven’t heard about it,” said Mr. Ross, whose county is majority black and a critical Democratic stronghold in statewide races. “I have three Facebook pages and Twitter and I haven’t seen that yet.”
He said that race should not be an issue in the election and he disagreed with the Maryland Democratic Party making race an issue.
“I can’t control the Democratic Party. They shouldn’t do that,” Mr. Ross said. “They should just let it go on the issues.”
The racially-charged fliers coincide with rising fears among Democrats that low turnout this year from black voters, who overwhelmingly back the party, will result in Democratic loses in the governor’s race in Maryland and in key U.S. Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina.
President Obama, whose low poll number have kept him for the most part off the campaign trail this year, has joined the scramble to excite black voters. He has quietly done a series of interviews on black radio stations to get the message out to the bloc that turned out in droves for him in 2008 and 2012.
“I’ll bet there are whole bunch of folks listening to your show who may not even know that there’s an election going on. I need everybody to go vote,” Mr. Obama said recently on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show in Atlanta, which is also nationally syndicated on the TV program Dish Nation.
The mailer in Maryland, which was produced by the Maryland Democratic Party, used racially-charged images to deliver the same message in support of Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who is in a surprisingly competitive race for governor against Republican Larry Hogan in that deep-blue state.
“Vote for Anthony Brown as Maryland’s first African-American Governor,” it says. “History is watching to see if we vote.”
The mailer includes images of a segregation era sign for a “colored waiting room,” a “Must Show ID to Vote” sign and a black-and-white photograph of a white protester in the 1960s holding a sign that reads: “Go Back to Africa Negroes.”
Another photograph in the pamphlet shows Donald Trump in front of a billboard that reads: “Where’s the birth certificate,” recalling the real estate mogul’s campaign to get President Obama to show his birth certificate and prove eligibility to be president.
.................................................. ......
View the complete article at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...spur-black-vo/
The Washington Times
S.A. Miller
10/29/2014
Excerpt:
The spate of campaign fliers that use images of lynchings, Jim Crow laws and the recent racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, to urge blacks to vote in next week’s election somehow failed to grab the attention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP headquarters in Washington wasn’t prepared to answer questions about the fliers and mailers circulated in black communities in Georgia, Maryland and North Carolina, despite widespread news coverage of it for the past week.
“Can you send the photos of the literature and tell me the exact states they have been distributed in so that I can contact our field offices?” said NAACP spokeswoman Jamiah Adams.
She did not respond after receiving the information.
Bob Ross, president of the NAACP branch in Prince George’s County, Maryland, also wasn’t familiar with the race-baiting campaign literature.
“We haven’t seen it and we haven’t heard about it,” said Mr. Ross, whose county is majority black and a critical Democratic stronghold in statewide races. “I have three Facebook pages and Twitter and I haven’t seen that yet.”
He said that race should not be an issue in the election and he disagreed with the Maryland Democratic Party making race an issue.
“I can’t control the Democratic Party. They shouldn’t do that,” Mr. Ross said. “They should just let it go on the issues.”
The racially-charged fliers coincide with rising fears among Democrats that low turnout this year from black voters, who overwhelmingly back the party, will result in Democratic loses in the governor’s race in Maryland and in key U.S. Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina.
President Obama, whose low poll number have kept him for the most part off the campaign trail this year, has joined the scramble to excite black voters. He has quietly done a series of interviews on black radio stations to get the message out to the bloc that turned out in droves for him in 2008 and 2012.
“I’ll bet there are whole bunch of folks listening to your show who may not even know that there’s an election going on. I need everybody to go vote,” Mr. Obama said recently on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show in Atlanta, which is also nationally syndicated on the TV program Dish Nation.
The mailer in Maryland, which was produced by the Maryland Democratic Party, used racially-charged images to deliver the same message in support of Democratic Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, who is in a surprisingly competitive race for governor against Republican Larry Hogan in that deep-blue state.
“Vote for Anthony Brown as Maryland’s first African-American Governor,” it says. “History is watching to see if we vote.”
The mailer includes images of a segregation era sign for a “colored waiting room,” a “Must Show ID to Vote” sign and a black-and-white photograph of a white protester in the 1960s holding a sign that reads: “Go Back to Africa Negroes.”
Another photograph in the pamphlet shows Donald Trump in front of a billboard that reads: “Where’s the birth certificate,” recalling the real estate mogul’s campaign to get President Obama to show his birth certificate and prove eligibility to be president.
.................................................. ......
View the complete article at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...spur-black-vo/