ad info

CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
 ASIANOW
 U.S.
 U.S. LOCAL
 ALLPOLITICS
  TIME
  analysis
  community
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 custom news
 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

 CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast
 pagenet

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:
ELECTION 98 MAIN|
|REMOTE NAVIGATOR

RELATED STORIES

CQ Profile: Delbert Hosemann

CQ Profile: Ronnie Shows

State profile: Mississippi

Turnout -- Mississippi

http://cnn.com

COMMUNITY

Post your opinions on the November races

Democrats work to boost African-American turnout

It could be important in races like Mississippi's 4th C.D.

By John King/CNN

JACKSON, Mississippi (October 26) -- Democrats are promising an aggressive voter turnout effort as they try to defy the odds in this year's midterm congressional elections.

A critical element of the Democratic strategy is getting black Americans and other racial minorities out to the polls next Tuesday.

Ronnie Shows is running for Congress from Mississippi as a Democrat, swear to God.

Shows
Ronnie Shows  

"Ronnie Shows promises you that he's going to stay a Democrat," he says. "I am not a switcher."

There's good reason those words are gospel to the black community here in Jackson, and good reason Shows goes out of his way to repeat them. "I'm running as a Democrat because I believe in the Democratic philosophy," he says.

Nearly 40 percent of the registered voters in Mississippi's 4th congressional district are black. If they vote in high numbers, the Democrat tends to win.

But many of these voters are still angry at the last Democrat they sent to Congress. Mike Parker switched parties, joining the Republican revolution sweeping across the Deep South.

But Parker isn't running for re-election, and the 4th district is taking center stage in an aggressive effort to energize traditional Democratic base voters for next week's midterm elections.

The Democratic Party and its allies are spending more than $25 million this year on a get-out-the-vote campaign, and more than $5 million of that is targeted to the black community.

There is organizing in churches, a black radio campaign featuring the president and the first lady and later this week, a congressional black caucus bus tour to several targeted districts in the Midwest.

In Jackson, Democratic foot soldiers spread sample ballots outside black churches as the candidate makes his case inside.

Hines
Rev. Hosea Hines  

Local ministers promise their most aggressive turnout push in years.

"In Jesus' name, wrap your arms around each and every candidate right now," Rev. Hosea Hines tells his parishoners.

"We feel that we need to put a candidate in office who is sensitive to our needs and certainly who can associate with who we are and where we want to go," Rev. Hines said. "The Republican Party has certainly been insensitive to a lot of needs within the African-American community."

Republican tax lawyer Delbert Hosemann, who also wants to represent the 4th District, is banking on support from conservative whites who don't think much of President Bill Clinton and the national Democratic Party.

"In Mississippi we've got our moral compass on right," Hosemann says as he campaigns.

Hosemann sticks to a textbook Republican message, promoting the flat tax and more military spending.

"I'm a pro-life conservative..." Hosemann says. "That is who you would be voting for if you vote for me."

But he isn't conceding the black vote altogether, and is getting help from a small band of more affluent black voters who are embracing the GOP.

Hosemann
Delbert Hosemann  

"Our votes can no longer be taken for granted by those in another party I won't name," said one man.

Hosemann opposes affirmative action and says the cure for racial inequality is better schools.

"We lose too many people, African Americans as well as others, beginning with those years one through 12," he says.

A recent reception for the candidate drew but a modest crowd, but even a modest black vote for Hosemann could tip the scales here.

"I think this is going to be a new day for Mississippi, that African Americans are now beginning to vote independently of party," said one woman. "We are voting for a good candidate who can represent all of us."

Shows is way behind in fund-raising, and knows he cannot afford to lose his base.

So a late-campaign Sunday means a handful of church visits, spreading the message at a popular catfish restaurant and dropping by to say happy birthday to the mother of a major supporter.

"I am a Democrat. I'm going to stay a Democrat and I do not take anybody's vote for granted," Shows says.

It's the kind of one-one-one contact Shows hopes will encourage black Mississippians in the 4th district to vote and to believe him when he says he is a die-hard Democrat.


MORE STORIES:

Monday, October 26, 1998

Search CNN/AllPolitics by infoseek
          Enter keyword(s)       go    help


© 1998 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.
Who we are.