The Independence Party and the Black Community: A Power Partnership

The IP vote for Bloomberg on Column "C" was the highest mayoral vote on a minor party line in 40 years and double the vote total from four years ago. Minor party cross-endorsements have been crucial in New York City mayoral contests for 60 years, as they give candidates a way to broaden their appeal and voters a way to make a statement about their own political agenda. As one political old hand put it, the IP numbers "reflect rising disillusionment with the major parties." They also, as this commentator noted, were a sign of "the desire of many voters to support Bloomberg but not to identify themselves with Republicans." Obviously, many of the voters in question here are Democrats.

Use the above link to read the op-ed (pdf) from the Amsterdam News by Dr. Lenora Fulani, a founder of the Independence Party and the country's leading black independent. She hosts a monthly meeting in Harlem entitled "Conversations with a Black Independent."

Michael H. Drucker
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No Racial Gap Seen in ’08 Vote Turnout

The long-standing gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election last year, according to an analysis released Thursday. Black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up nearly a quarter of the electorate, setting a record.

The analysis, by the Pew Research Center, also found that for the first time, black women turned out at a higher rate than any other racial, ethnic and gender group.

Use the above link to read The New York Times article.

Michael H. Drucker
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Black America Going Independent

Dr. Lenora Fulani, a founder of the NY Independence Party, celebrated the 20th anniversary of her historic 1988 run for president when she became the first African American and first woman to get on the ballot in all 50 states. Fulani shared Double Dutch chocolate cake wtih friends and supporters at Harlem Day.

Michael H. Drucker
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Is Obama the End of Black Politics?

This article will appear in the 8/10/2008 Sunday's Times Magazine. The article is by Matt Bai, who covers politics for the magazine, is the author of “The Argument: Inside the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics.”

"Forty-seven years after he last looked out from behind the bars of a South Carolina jail cell, locked away for leading a march against segregation in Columbia, James Clyburn occupies a coveted suite of offices on the second and third floors of the United States Capitol, alongside the speaker and the House majority leader. Above his couch hangs a black-and-white photograph of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaking in Charleston, with the boyish Clyburn and a group of other men standing behind him onstage. When I visited Clyburn recently, he told me that the photo was taken in 1967, nine months before King’s assassination, when rumors of violence were swirling, and somewhere on the side of the room a photographer’s floodlight had just come crashing down unexpectedly. At the moment the photo was taken, everyone pictured has reflexively jerked their heads in the direction of the sound, with the notable exception of King himself, who remains in profile, staring straight ahead at his audience. Clyburn prizes that photo. It tells the story, he says, of a man who knew his fate but who, quite literally, refused to flinch."

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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