Donna Brazile and Lottie Shackelford Discuss Blacks & the Democratic Party on NPR

• Originally published by National Public Radio (NPR) April 13, 2005 Copyright 2005 National Public Radio (R)

ED GORDON, host:

From NPR News, this is NEWS AND NOTES. I'm Ed Gordon.

A couple of weeks ago on this program, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlmen talked about his campaign to woo African-American voters. Today, we hear from the Democrats. What's the party doing to hold on to what has traditionally been a lock? We'll be joined a little later by Lottie Shackelford, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, but first, we'll hear from Donna Brazile, a Democratic political strategist and a regular on our segment Political Corner.

Donna, thanks for joining us.

Ms. DONNA BRAZILE (Democratic Political Strategist): Thank you, Ed.

GORDON: Donna, I know that you take great pride in helping shape the Democratic Party on a whole with many of your clients, your candidates. I'm curious how you see the party as a whole right now? Many people see it as far more segmented than typically it is.

Ms. BRAZILE: Well, the Democratic Party's in the process of rebuilding itself at the state and local levels. Howard Dean is doing a tremendous job now and visiting many of the statehouses across the country, encouraging Democrats to work with the party to help retool it, to prepare it for the 2006 election. So I'm optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party, especially at the state and local levels. Now today in Washington, DC, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are about to announce some major initiatives to enhance the middle class, to help the working poor. They're going to put forward an agenda that I believe that will help re-establish the Democratic Party nationally. It's the party of ordinary people, the party of opportunity, the party of stability and growth, and I think those initiatives will, again, help to redefine the Democratic Party and to prepare the party for future elections.

GORDON: That being said, Donna, I hear from a lot of African-Americans who suggest that the Democratic Party is not looking to them and it's not talking to them, specifically, and that the GOP is making far more progress and at least getting voters to look over at that party, where heretofore, they didn't even bother to turn to the right.

Ms. BRAZILE: Well, I applaud Ken Mehlmen's efforts to reach out to African-Americans. But Ken, like other Republicans, will have to explain how they're using their power and clout in Washington, DC, to help African-American families, what they're doing to reduce the gaps between blacks and whites on a number of issues, including the economic gaps that we now see. African-American unemployment has increased by up to 10.8 percent, 4 percent higher than when Bill Clinton left office. I also think that Ken needs to respond to some of their criticism that the Republican Party is not doing enough to help historical black colleges and universities. They're not doing enough to help African-Americans get access to capital in order to invest in home ownership. So I think the Republican Party, while they're in the neighborhood, they're making rounds now inside the black community, need to also begin to answer some of those questions. And likewise, the Democrats must use their clout to help build public, private partnerships, something that Marc Morial, the president of the Urban League, called upon last week both parties to do.

GORDON: Donna, we're going to talk to Lottie Shackelford in just a moment to talk specifically about what Dems are doing, but would you concede the Democrats have not done enough in the general sense of talking about, on a grander scale, issues of import to black Americans?

Ms. BRAZILE: I would, again, call upon and challenge my party to do more to emphasize the things that we believe in, that we are fighting for. And too often, Democrats come into the African-American community so late in the game that African-Americans don't know what Democrats are doing nationally and at the state level to improve their lives. And it's important that Democrats begin to speak up and speak out and especially challenge the Republican Party to do more so that the Republican Party rhetoric is not the only voice that we're hearing right now in the black community.

GORDON: Is part of the issue that the Dems don't have, to a great degree at least, running a Bill Clinton, someone who was, if nothing else, comfortable, literally, among black people?

Ms. BRAZILE: Well, you know, Bill Clinton was a champion for the middle class, for the working poor. He helped African-American families in so many ways. And we need more leaders like Bill Clinton, perhaps working with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and others to lift up these issues and to make them national in ways that African-Americans understand the Democrats are fighting for their interests.

GORDON: Yeah, Donna, I hear privately, grumblings from black Democrats that they're not being paid enough attention to by leaders of the Democratic Party.

Ms. BRAZILE: Well, that's an old song that I hear a lot myself, and I'm a Democrat. But I can tell you this much, I believe Nancy Pelosi is consulting with members of the Black Caucus. I know that Senator Reid is consulting with Barack Obama, but they must go beyond just those on Capitol Hill. Reach out to African-Americans in the state and local levels, reach out to mayors. Howard Dean has reached out to African-American ministers. We need more of that, and we need it early and often.

GORDON: All right. Donna Brazile is a Democratic political strategist and author of "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics." We thank you very much, Donna.

Ms. BRAZILE: Thank you, Ed.

GORDON: Now joining us for a closer look at the Democratic Party's efforts to sustain and grow its African-American base is Lottie Shackelford, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and former deputy campaign manager for the Clinton/Gore presidential campaign.

Lottie, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.

Ms. LOTTIE SHACKELFORD (Vice Chair, Democratic National Committee): And thank you, Ed.

GORDON: We should note first, and to be fair, that we have offered this microphone to Chairman Dean, and I spoke with him just the other week. The point that the office is making is that he's not making national press interviews or doing national press interviews right now. But don't you think that black America should hear from Howard Dean, particularly since Ken Mehlmen is doing what many call, in sports analogy, a full-court press to talk to black America?

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Well, I think, Ed, Governor Dean is going out and speaking and touching and being in the presence of African-Americans across this country, and he's doing a lot of it in states in the South. And we know that the largest concentration of African-Americans is in the South. These are areas that have not traditionally been touched when it comes down to the national media. So he is making certain that he truly is out there. And they can see and touch and hear from him directly and unfiltered.

GORDON: Lottie, let me ask you this, and I'm going to come back to that point, though, but let me ask you, do you believe that the DNC is a bit more tenuous and the Democratic Party in general than they've been before with the African-American vote? I can tell you that I speak with voters who aren't necessarily particularly political, but they are now saying to me, where heretofore, as I mentioned to Donna, they weren't, that they're at least taking a look over at the right.

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Well, I think what the Democrats are saying is, `We've always made certain that we worked not just our mouths, but our policies and our actions in the sense of trying to promote ideals and policies, legislation throughout all levels of government that would be beneficial to working families and particularly African-Americans.' And what we are seeing is somehow or another, we didn't get that message across. And so we're not being tenuous in the sense of how we work with the African-American communities, because we've always worked with them. What we are doing, though, we're being much more diligent in the sense of making certain we get our message out. And I think, if anything, it's how we've gotten our message out and whether or not we've done it at the grassroots level. This is something that Governor Dean has emphasized. He has not only emphasized, he's already been into about 15 states, working very hard to increase the support for state parties. You know, after all, this is where the majority of your elected officials come from, from local and state governments, and making certain they know that the Democratic Party is working and fighting for them each and every day.

GORDON: Yet, Lottie, if many--I won't characterize or even if you want to use the word `some' African-American voters feel disenfranchised and neglected by the Democratic Party, if privately many African-American elected officials, nationally, suggest that the party tolerates them but does not bring them into the fold, what do you have to do to quiet some of these complaints?

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Well, I think if you take a look at the record--now you take a look at the number of elected officials who are African-American, the majority of them, overwhelming majority, by the way, are African-American. If you take a look at the structures of state Democratic parties and you take a look at state Republican parties and you see where the largest percentage of African-Americans are, if you take a look at the national party and you see how many African-Americans are represented across the board, you take a look in Congress, how many members of Congress are Democrats who are African-American and how many members of Congress are Republican who are African-American, so...

GORDON: But, Lottie, we know, disproportionately, you're going to come up with more African-Americans who are Democrat than Republican. I guess the question...

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Well, that means they're at the table, though. You know, to say that African-Americans is not at the table when they are at the table helping to introduce legislation that is beneficial and helpful to African-Americans across this country. You know, so to say that African-Americans are being left out...

GORDON: Well, let me make sure that you didn't misinterpret what I'm saying, and it's not my saying as much as it is what I hear from voters and what I hear privately from elected officials. They're not suggesting they're not at the table. They're suggesting they have no plate at the table.

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Well, I guess I'm suggesting that they do have a place at the table. And if there's been any kind of miscommunication, it's because Democrats probably have not gotten their message out and others are saying, you know, it's all this cat-and-mouse game. Republicans are saying, `Oh, the Democrats are just ignoring you. They're not really paying attention to you.' And I'm saying, if you look at everything that the Democrats promote, advocate and fight for, there is no way one can take a look at those things and say that Democrats are ignoring African-Americans.

GORDON: And do you feel comfortable with the strategies that you are hearing? Most Democrats do suggest that the clocks were clean this past election. Are you satisfied with the strategies that you're seeing going in to the next congressional elections?

Ms. SHACKELFORD: I'm satisfied with the fact that we are putting much more emphasis on grassroots strategies and making certain folks from the ground up are truly involved and not during the election cycle. I mean, this process is already begun. Governor Dean announced the work with four state parties last week. This is an effort that he hopes to have completed by the end of the year, whereby the national committee will be helping to strengthen state parties across this country, with all of them being on board by the end of the year, with the real emphasis being on grassroots efforts and strategies.

GORDON: All right, well, Lottie Shackelford, vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and former deputy campaign manager for Clinton/Gore, I'd suggest that you, if you would, put in another kind word to us to Governor Dean, see if he can come on and talk to our listeners about what specifically they want to do. We appreciate your time, though, today.

Ms. SHACKELFORD: Thank you, Ed.

GORDON: Coming up on our Roundtable, Donald Rumsfeld visits Iraq and Al Sharpton in some hot water.

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