Number of black GOP delegates at a marked low, survey finds

John Tlumacki/Globe StaffNorth Carolina's section Tuesday. Only 36 GOP delegates at this GOP convention are black, the lowest tally since 1964. (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)

ST. PAUL - The Republican Party, which seemed poised to make inroads among African- American voters by backing three black candidates in major races - and executing a high-profile outreach effort that included a mea culpa for slavery - has far fewer black convention delegates in this year's convention than it did in 2004, according to a recently released study.

At time when the Democratic Party made history by nominating Barack Obama, the first black presidential candidate of a major political party, only 36 of approximately 2,000 delegates gathered here at the Xcel Energy Center this week are African-American, according to the study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The center, which tracks such data, said it is the lowest rate of black participation in 34 years.

The scarcity of black faces has been reflected at the speaker's podium, where Michael Steele, an unsuccessful candidate for US Senate, has been the only African-American to have a prominent speaking role during the four-day event. It also hints at the collapse of a push by former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman to capitalize on black voters' dissatisfaction with the Democrats and bring them into the GOP's "big tent."

"It's the lowest level of black participation since Goldwater," said David Bositis, senior analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and author of the study, referring to the contentious 1964 Republican convention. Convened at the height of the civil rights movement, the event had presidential nominee Barry Goldwater calling for law and order against protesters in the streets.

"It's interesting, because Goldwater was from Arizona," like current GOP nominee John McCain, Bositis said.

Timothy Johnson, an African-American delegate from North Carolina, said he believes the downturn in participation is simply a lull. Johnson said his party scored a milestone in the Tarheel State, making him the state's first black county GOP chairman and electing its first black state assemblywoman.

"When you start looking at history, we made history," Johnson said. Still, the national party leadership "hasn't done a good enough job on reaching out to the black community."

Yet as recently as two years ago, the Republican Party seemed poised to fulfill its legacy as the self-described "Party of Lincoln, the Great Emancipator."

The GOP made headlines by recruiting and backing high-profile black candidates, nominating NFL Hall of Fame player Lynn Swann and Ken Blackwell to run for governor in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively, and pouring money and resources into Steele's bid to represent Maryland in the US Senate.

Looking to change the notion that it was indifferent, if not hostile, to black interests, and seeking to capitalize on black discontent with Democrats, Mehlman launched a yearlong recruiting drive, appearing in black churches and before the NAACP. At the civil rights group's annual meeting, Mehlman pointedly said that slavery "was wrong," the closest thing to a formal apology the black community has received.

Mehlman even coined a slogan for the effort: "Give us a chance, we'll give you a choice."

But Steele, Blackwell, and Swann each lost decisively, and Mehlman left the chairmanship of the GOP the following year, when the Democrats retook control of Congress.

According to the Joint Center report, based on polling and voter trend analysis, the 36 black delegates in 2008 represent a 78.4 percent decline from the 167 black delegates at the 2004 GOP convention. Even though McCain, the Republican nominee, has tried to make inroads with black voters through the NAACP and the Urban League, he will struggle to compete for the black vote with Obama, whose nomination has energized the black community.

"John McCain is very likely to receive a historically low share of the black vote," according to the survey. Though there isn't much hostility toward McCain among black voters, it is "a reflection of Senator Obama's historic candidacy, the deep and genuine enthusiasm for him in the black community, and Senator McCain's association with President Bush, an exceptionally unpopular figure among African-Americans."

Johnson said the Republican Party leadership must do more to bring African-Americans into the fold. He and others say they cannot recruit other black people to follow them if the party isn't willing to help do it - and few black voters have open minds on the subject.

"If you have a closed mind, how do you expect the GOP to give you a chance?" Johnson said.