Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 1, 1995 TAG: 9501030090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Partly in response to North's loss to Democratic Sen. Charles Robb, 10th District Republicans have formed a task force to work on bringing more blacks and other minorities into the GOP.
``It's mainly just to make sure people know they are welcome and the party is not hostile,'' said 10th District Chairman James Rich.
On the state level, Republicans will hold a session on attracting blacks to their party at a meeting in Charlottesville Jan. 13-15.
While the 10th District task force focuses on reaching out, its creation shows the divisions within the state Republican party.
Rich said he and other Republicans were concerned about pre-election remarks by state GOP Chairman Pat McSweeney that were interpreted as meaning Republicans had written off the black vote.
``A lot of us were concerned that the state chairman said it was not cost-effective to worry about the minority vote. We felt that was wrong,'' said Rich, one of a majority of district chairmen who would like McSweeney to quit. The chairman has said he will serve out his term, which ends in 1996.
``We're certainly trying to send a message to the state party. They don't seem to get it, and they certainly need to get it,'' Rich said.
McSweeney said the state party has been working on attracting more minorities for years.
``They're way behind,'' he said of the 10th District effort.
``We've been building, and not with a high-profile effort that in the past has really gotten us nothing, but with slow, hard, tedious work,'' McSweeney said.
McSweeney said his remarks about the black vote were misinterpreted. He said he intended to say it was not worthwhile to court black leaders who already had endorsed the Democratic candidate.
``What has been happening with great regularity is we've been written off, not the other way around,'' McSweeney said. ``In the last 10 days [of a campaign], you can't undo that.''
He blamed North's poor showing among blacks on Marshall Coleman, a former Republican attorney general who ran as an independent. North got 9 percent of the black vote, and Coleman got 6 percent, according to exit polls.
By contrast, GOP Gov. George Allen got about 20 percent of the black vote in 1993.
Ulysses X. White, chairman of the 10th District task force, said blacks will have more political power if they spread themselves between the two major parties.
``The Republican Party has ignored us, and Democrats took us for granted. We wind up with no leverage at all,'' he said.
The Democrats realize how valuable their ties to black voters are, Democratic Party spokeswoman Gail Nardi said.
``The Democratic Party of Virginia has a proven record of respecting and including African-American voices and ideas and people in our Democratic family,'' Nardi said. ``The Republican Party has absolutely no track record in that regard.''
But Republicans have a message that can appeal to blacks, said Toni-Michelle Travis, a George Mason University political scientist who studies minority issues.
``I think the appeal would work for younger blacks,'' she said. ``Many are fairly conservative and are opposed to affirmative action. The economic ideas of the Republican Party appeal to them.''
by CNB