Kerry meeting with black leaders to shore up support in final weeks of campaign
PHILADELPHIA -- Determined to avoid any erosion in support, Sen. John Kerry is reaching out to black voters, a core Democratic constituency, in the campaign's final month, meeting with black religious leaders and traveling with Jesse Jackson.
A strong voter turnout by African-Americans is crucial to the presidential nominee's goal of ousting President Bush on Nov. 2, particularly in battleground states. Kerry's recent contact have focused on Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states teetering in a virtual tie between the Democrat and the Republican incumbent.
In Philadelphia, Kerry held a long, private meeting Monday with religious leaders, mostly from Ohio and Pennsylvania, who asked for inclusion and influence in his administration, which he obliged.
"If you make me president of the United States, I will do my best to even do better than Bill Clinton did to make sure the government of the United States looks like the face of America," Kerry said.
He told them that urban economic development would be on the agenda for his first 100 days in office. The religious leaders agreed strongly with his assessment that money spent in Iraq is money not spent at home, participants said.
A pamphlet detailed his promises for civil rights, economic opportunity, education, health care and commitment to Africa.
Kerry also aimed to reach black voters through an interview with Black Entertainment Television. Taped in Philadelphia, the half-hour interview is scheduled to air Thursday night and again on Friday, the night of his second debate with Bush.
The Democratic National Committee unveiled a 60-second radio ad on Tuesday that urged blacks to vote and argued that Republicans are trying to discourage them from going to the polls, a complaint Kerry has made in the campaign. The ad will begin airing Wednesday in nine battleground states, including Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
"George Bush and the Republicans will tell you to vote ... if you're white," the ad says. "If you're black, you get the other message. The negative ads. Making you feel your vote doesn't matter. We know George Bush and the Republicans. They use their power, but not in our community."
Republicans dismissed the suggestion that they are trying to suppress the black vote, saying such claims were false and divisive.
In Cleveland, local religious and political leaders heard Kerry assail the president for turning the charitable works of religious groups into a political cause and neglecting obvious needs for jobs, health care and education.
He talked about rebuilding the country's foreign alliances as a path to creating the moral authority to tackle AIDS and violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Kerry has solid support among black voters, though not quite as much as Democrat Al Gore in 2000. An AP-Ipsos poll taken in mid-September found that 80 percent of black registered voters supported Kerry, while 7 percent supported Bush. Exit polls showed Gore winning 90 percent of the black vote four years ago.
Kerry spends much of his time on the road reaching out to moderate, undecided voters in closely divided states.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said she expects the four-term Massachusetts senator to spend more time contacting and energizing black voters, doing more events geared around their concerns.
"Ministerial leadership is very key," she said.
Black community and elected leaders have expressed frustrations with feeling excluded from the Bush administration. Even so, Jackson said Kerry can't take the black community's votes for granted.
"You have to earn votes, you have to touch the leaders, and you have to lay out issues that inspire them," he said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said a question came up in Monday's private meeting about the feeling that blacks "could be more excited" about Kerry's candidacy.
Cummings said Kerry told the group that the choice is "very easy" when you compare Kerry's plans and promises to Bush's record.
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