Election fever may not be as high around the country as it was during the 2008 presidential campaign, but top Democrats tell the Defender that the upcoming Nov. 2 midterm election is not only crucial to Barack Obama’s presidency but to the party maintaining majority control in Congress and in offices around the nation.
So members of the party have begun to “fan out around the country” to help candidates in tight races retain – or capture – their respective races.
“Although President Obama’s name may not be on the ballot his ability to accomplish the agenda he campaigned on is very much affected by the quality of the partners that are elected,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine told the Defender.
He explained that his organization plans to reach out to the electorate that overwhelmingly supported Obama to help ensure that candidates like Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who is in a contentious race with Republican challenger Bill Brady, and the state’s Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, vying for the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Obama moved to the White House, win their races.
Kaine acknowledges that despite the president’s enviable list of accomplishments, Democrats are braced for “challenging mid-terms.”
The former Virginia governor ran through a list of “significant” legislation that Obama has taken on and gotten passed with minimal to no support from Republicans including health care, credit card and Wall Street reforms, as well as a revamping of federal student loans.
“This president and Congress are willing to do heavy lifts on tough issues in a tough climate,” Kaine said.
He is hoping African Americans, especially, will flex their voting muscle as they did in 2008. Now the Democrats are looking for that “very reliable” support from African Americans, women and young adult voters who handed the nation its first Black president.
“We’re doing a lot from the DNC to focus on African American voters around the country,” Kaine explained.
The party plans door-to-door canvassing and media blitzes in Chicago and other urban areas where it’s candidates are in heated races. Kaine said the DNC plans a $50 million investment in the midterm elections.
The midterms so far have not piqued African American voters’ interests as the general election two years ago did, pollsters say. In 2008 in the city’s Black wards, some 416,631 votes were cast, according to Chicago Board of Elections data. That was a stark uptick from the 2006 midterm elections where those same wards cast a little over 262,000 votes.
Kaine and his party have their fingers crossed – and coffers open – hoping that come November the frustration some feel with the current state of affairs in urban areas and throughout the nation doesn’t cost Democrats control of Congress and traditionally blue state offices across the country.
Democrats are trying to reignite voters like those in Chicago’s 5th and 8th Wards who cast over 24,000 and 29,000 votes, respectively, in 2008. But in the last midterm elections, only 14,649 (5th Ward) and 19,403 (8th Ward) votes could be mustered.
But U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, who is up for re-election in his 2nd Congressional District, said the race in Illinois is more about Quinn than Obama.
The congressman, who has been in office since December 1995, said in order for Democrats in this state’s races to win, Quinn – who heads the ticket for the party – has to strengthen his campaign against his Republican challenger.
“If Governor Quinn and Sheila Simon cannot inspire turnout at the top of the ticket, then Alexi Giannoulias has problems, but so do David Miller and Robin Kelly in the state-wide races, and so do Debbie Halvorson and Dan Seals in congressional races,” Cong. Jackson said, referring to the U.S. Senate, state comptroller, state treasurer and congressional races, respectively. “And all the Democrats … should be telling Governor Quinn the same thing, and doing it publicly.”
African American turnout at the polls was the key to Obama's election success, Kaine and Jackson both agree. Overall in Chicago, Obama got 85 percent of the vote. In the Black wards, he averaged 97 percent, election data revealed.
Jackson called on the head of the state’s Democratic ticket to show up in African American neighborhoods, to drum up interest in the upcoming election.
“Pat Quinn has to come to our community to make up for what is going to be a tough road for them in other parts of the state. And the DNC and the party committees have to come to places like the South Side and the West Side and the South Suburbs too to help statewide candidates get across the finish line,” the congressman said. “And when they come to our community, it’s got to be with substance.”
And like Kaine, Jackson and other elected officials, faith and community groups are looking to motivate African American, young adult and women voters to support Democrats in November as they did in 2008.
Groups like the Urban League’s Metropolitan Board tries to make sure that African American voters are not only “reliable” but also educated. The organization includes the core constituencies that are being sought after for support.
“We firmly believe that it is important not just to vote, but to know and understand who and what you are voting for. An uneducated voter about who and what they are voting for is no different than a non-voter,” Angela Brooks, the organization’s president, told the Defender.
Her organization is not only concerned about educating voters, but looks forward to helping stimulate voter turnout. The Metro Board, as it is known, plans to host a U.S. Senate debate with its parent agency.
Rev. Jesse Jackson said African American voters may not be easily stoked and expects that get-out-the-vote efforts won’t be as fruitful as in 2008.
“In ’08 we had hope at that time,” the president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said. Now, he said, voters are “grieving.”
Kaine acknowledged the tough times all Americans are enduring, likening the state of the nation to a car being in a ditch.
The DNC chairman said, though, that the country has started to drive out of the ditch and he and his party want the help of voters, including African Americans, to help “keep moving forward.”
Faith leaders want African Americans to prepare to vote in November, even in the face of tough times.
“I believe that … as the country has been apathetic, so have African Americans.
But given the crisis that we have concerning our economics, the unemployment rate, the crime rate in the streets, the educational system itself, it becomes an imperative, a moral imperative for African Americans to vote and then to be heard,” Dr. Byron Brazier, pastor of Apostolic Church of God, told the Defender.
Like other places of worship statewide, Apostolic will host a series of senate and gubernatorial forums leading up to Election Day.
Rev. Jackson added that staying home from the polls shouldn’t be an option.
“Our vote is critical, even more so when there’s a low voter turnout,” Rev. Jackson said. “We need to vote because the alternatives are critical alternatives. When we vote it determines the winners. When we don’t vote it determines the losers and it hurts us.”
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender
So members of the party have begun to “fan out around the country” to help candidates in tight races retain – or capture – their respective races.
“Although President Obama’s name may not be on the ballot his ability to accomplish the agenda he campaigned on is very much affected by the quality of the partners that are elected,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine told the Defender.
He explained that his organization plans to reach out to the electorate that overwhelmingly supported Obama to help ensure that candidates like Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who is in a contentious race with Republican challenger Bill Brady, and the state’s Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, vying for the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Obama moved to the White House, win their races.
Kaine acknowledges that despite the president’s enviable list of accomplishments, Democrats are braced for “challenging mid-terms.”
The former Virginia governor ran through a list of “significant” legislation that Obama has taken on and gotten passed with minimal to no support from Republicans including health care, credit card and Wall Street reforms, as well as a revamping of federal student loans.
“This president and Congress are willing to do heavy lifts on tough issues in a tough climate,” Kaine said.
He is hoping African Americans, especially, will flex their voting muscle as they did in 2008. Now the Democrats are looking for that “very reliable” support from African Americans, women and young adult voters who handed the nation its first Black president.
“We’re doing a lot from the DNC to focus on African American voters around the country,” Kaine explained.
The party plans door-to-door canvassing and media blitzes in Chicago and other urban areas where it’s candidates are in heated races. Kaine said the DNC plans a $50 million investment in the midterm elections.
The midterms so far have not piqued African American voters’ interests as the general election two years ago did, pollsters say. In 2008 in the city’s Black wards, some 416,631 votes were cast, according to Chicago Board of Elections data. That was a stark uptick from the 2006 midterm elections where those same wards cast a little over 262,000 votes.
Kaine and his party have their fingers crossed – and coffers open – hoping that come November the frustration some feel with the current state of affairs in urban areas and throughout the nation doesn’t cost Democrats control of Congress and traditionally blue state offices across the country.
Democrats are trying to reignite voters like those in Chicago’s 5th and 8th Wards who cast over 24,000 and 29,000 votes, respectively, in 2008. But in the last midterm elections, only 14,649 (5th Ward) and 19,403 (8th Ward) votes could be mustered.
But U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, who is up for re-election in his 2nd Congressional District, said the race in Illinois is more about Quinn than Obama.
The congressman, who has been in office since December 1995, said in order for Democrats in this state’s races to win, Quinn – who heads the ticket for the party – has to strengthen his campaign against his Republican challenger.
“If Governor Quinn and Sheila Simon cannot inspire turnout at the top of the ticket, then Alexi Giannoulias has problems, but so do David Miller and Robin Kelly in the state-wide races, and so do Debbie Halvorson and Dan Seals in congressional races,” Cong. Jackson said, referring to the U.S. Senate, state comptroller, state treasurer and congressional races, respectively. “And all the Democrats … should be telling Governor Quinn the same thing, and doing it publicly.”
African American turnout at the polls was the key to Obama's election success, Kaine and Jackson both agree. Overall in Chicago, Obama got 85 percent of the vote. In the Black wards, he averaged 97 percent, election data revealed.
Jackson called on the head of the state’s Democratic ticket to show up in African American neighborhoods, to drum up interest in the upcoming election.
“Pat Quinn has to come to our community to make up for what is going to be a tough road for them in other parts of the state. And the DNC and the party committees have to come to places like the South Side and the West Side and the South Suburbs too to help statewide candidates get across the finish line,” the congressman said. “And when they come to our community, it’s got to be with substance.”
And like Kaine, Jackson and other elected officials, faith and community groups are looking to motivate African American, young adult and women voters to support Democrats in November as they did in 2008.
Groups like the Urban League’s Metropolitan Board tries to make sure that African American voters are not only “reliable” but also educated. The organization includes the core constituencies that are being sought after for support.
“We firmly believe that it is important not just to vote, but to know and understand who and what you are voting for. An uneducated voter about who and what they are voting for is no different than a non-voter,” Angela Brooks, the organization’s president, told the Defender.
Her organization is not only concerned about educating voters, but looks forward to helping stimulate voter turnout. The Metro Board, as it is known, plans to host a U.S. Senate debate with its parent agency.
Rev. Jesse Jackson said African American voters may not be easily stoked and expects that get-out-the-vote efforts won’t be as fruitful as in 2008.
“In ’08 we had hope at that time,” the president and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition said. Now, he said, voters are “grieving.”
Kaine acknowledged the tough times all Americans are enduring, likening the state of the nation to a car being in a ditch.
The DNC chairman said, though, that the country has started to drive out of the ditch and he and his party want the help of voters, including African Americans, to help “keep moving forward.”
Faith leaders want African Americans to prepare to vote in November, even in the face of tough times.
“I believe that … as the country has been apathetic, so have African Americans.
But given the crisis that we have concerning our economics, the unemployment rate, the crime rate in the streets, the educational system itself, it becomes an imperative, a moral imperative for African Americans to vote and then to be heard,” Dr. Byron Brazier, pastor of Apostolic Church of God, told the Defender.
Like other places of worship statewide, Apostolic will host a series of senate and gubernatorial forums leading up to Election Day.
Rev. Jackson added that staying home from the polls shouldn’t be an option.
“Our vote is critical, even more so when there’s a low voter turnout,” Rev. Jackson said. “We need to vote because the alternatives are critical alternatives. When we vote it determines the winners. When we don’t vote it determines the losers and it hurts us.”
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender
