Black republicans question party's committment [View All]

no joke.



http://wilmingtonjournal.blackpressusa.com/news/Article/Article.asp?NewsID=3348&sID=3

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – As the Republican Party tries to gain a larger share of the Black vote in the 2004 presidential election, skepticism over whether that will happen comes from a surprising source – Black Republicans.

“I’m not sure they’re going to even try,” says Arthur Fletcher, Jr., former assistant secretary of labor in the Nixon administration. “Nixon won the White House without a Black vote two times, Reagan won the White House without a Black vote two times. Bush won the White House without a Black vote one time. Bush junior has won it without a Black vote. When they look at their dollars and realize that the Hispanics are chomping at the bits to get aboard, I’m not sure they’re going to make a bona fide effort to attract Blacks.”

Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie, who has been touring the country with Black boxing promoter Don King, says he’s working to prove that the Republicans are serious about the Black vote.

“We want to do better than the 9 percent that President Bush got in 2000. I’m confident we can do that,” Gillespie says. “The president has done a lot to reposition the party and reach out to African-American voters.”

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