NYT Magazine Profile of Michael Steele

The New York Times Magazine profiled Republican Senate candidate and Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele last Sunday. I only got around to reading the full story today and was moved to post a few thoughts. The main premise of the story is that Steele is seen by many Republicans and even Democrats as the Republican Party's best hope to attract greater numbers of African American voters.

One deficiency of the profile piece is that is fails to mention that Steele was a Party player, the chair of the Maryland Republican Party, before becoming Lt. Governor. It's not unusual and that fact certainly shouldn't necessarily hurt him, however it is important as it helps explain his rise and how he developed such strong relationships with White House and GOP strategists Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman. The piece explains that Lt. Governor Steele hails from Prince George's County which has an enormous African American population and one of the wealthiest black populations in the nation. There is no doubt that this is an important base from which to run for the U.S. Senate and Steele has been aggressively courting African American voters. Though the article points out that on many issues his positions may clash with the political beliefs of many African American voters in Maryland.

A few paragraphs from the story, which is teased on the magazine's front cover as "The Year of the Black Republican?", about the GOP's strategy and motives stood out and are excerpted below:

Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer to the Magazine, writes that, "The G.O.P. has used so-called wedge issues -- with gay marriage leading the list -- on which churchgoing, socially conservative blacks may find affinity with Republican positions. Steele is socially conservative. And black. And Catholic. How much could he cut into the traditional Democratic vote? It might not have to be much to turn an election."

In their run for the Governor's mansion the Ehrlich-Steele team ran an effective television advertisement that appealed well to African American voters, and I am among those who believe the ad helped turn the election. The ad, which I utilize to teach graduate students about political appeals each semester in my Ethnic Marketing and Political Communication course at Johns Hopkins University, featured a uniformed African American police officer named Veronica Sinclair-Anderson who praised the future Governor in terms that the average voter could understand and associate with. It was one of the most effective political commercials I have ever seen, and the police officer in the ad was rewarded for her strong support for the ticket and has risen within the administrtion and now serves as the policy coordinator on Steele's staff.

and...

Sokolove recalls a telling interaction between Steele and a close friend: "Don't be an 'outreach pawn,' Steele's friend Curt Anderson, a political consultant, warned him. By that, Anderson, former political director of the Republican National Committee, meant, Don't get into the race just so the party can say it is fielding a black candidate or so it can appear to be softening its image. 'I have a dim view of the typical Republican outreach,' Anderson told me. 'It's like: Yeah, look, we have a black guy. We have a Hispanic guy. Look over there, we have a Jewish guy. It's surface. It never bears fruit. I told him: Don't do it for the Republican Party. Don't do it for the president. Do it for yourself. He had to ask himself, Can I win? Everything else is silly'."

I'm be interested to see how this comment plays out. Clearly Anderson intended to send the message that Steele is in the Senate race because he cares about the issues and is personally committed to raising money and winning. Yet the comment helps to undermine GOP appeals to African American voters.

and ...

"Republicans have been making two appeals to minority voters. One is on the social issues of abortion and gay marriage; the other is economic -- the contention that their conservative programs have more to offer those who want to help themselves. And never far below the surface is the emotional appeal to black voters that they have been taken for granted by the Democratic Party and by their own black elected officials. In consumer terms, the pitch is, You've shopped with them for generations why don't you come down the street and see what we have to offer."

Oddly almost nothing was said about the Democratic message to African American voters and the depth of outreach conducted in 2004 and planned for 2006 and beyond, and I presume this is exactly the kind of story the National Republican Senatorial Committee enjoys reading. This omission was especially odd given that Howard Dean, the Democratic Party Chairman, has been vocal about the need for Democrats to re-invest in connecting with the African American communities across the nation. Joe Trippi is quoted in the story saying essentially that a Steele victory would be damaging for Democrats and would further cut into the Party's support among African Americans.

Click [here] for the full article from The New York Times Magazine. It's a great read.