As .08 and MassMarrier have already noted, the Globe has a report today on Deval Patrick’s visit to Dorchester’s Greater Love Tabernacle Church. Why was he there?
to explain who he was, and to address a belief in equal-marriage rights that has put him at odds with some ministers and members of the African-American community, who see same-sex marriage as a violation of the Scriptures….
After Patrick spoke, [Rev.] Dickerson and several worshipers made it clear that while they oppose gay marriage, they believe that far more pressing problems threaten their neighborhoods. And that’s what Patrick wants – and probably needs – to hear from African-American voters across the state as he tries to become the first black governor in Massachusetts history.
The resistance to gay marriage in some parts of the African-American community, particularly in some of the churches, is real. And Patrick’s vocal support of equal marriage rights has apparently become enough of an issue in that community (whose support Patrick obviously wants) that Patrick has decided to deal with it aggressively with visits like this one, in which he acknowledges the disagreement but urges a focus on other issues. Good – that’s the right thing to do. And good for Rev. Dickerson and his parishioners quoted in the Globe article for seeing past an admittedly hot-button issue about which they and Patrick disagree to focus on issues like “the murder rate, AIDS, and homelessness, among other issues” that pose far more significant threats to the neighborhoods served by churches like Greater Love.
Visits like this are important for Patrick for another reason: Patrick is no doubt well aware that Tom Reilly’s ties to the African-American community are significant and longstanding. Among Reilly’s oldest friends is Wayne Budd, former US Attorney for Massachusetts, with whom Reilly grew up in Springfield. Reilly has also been close to Ralph Martin, the former Suffolk County DA, for many years. In a curious twist, both Martin and Budd are Republicans.
Irony upon irony. Patrick, the first serious African-American candidate for Governor in Massachusetts history, is playing catch-up having to work hard at garnering support in the African-American community, in part because his white opponent in the Democratic primary has close ties to that overwhelmingly Democratic community through his long-term friendships with two influential African-American Republicans. Go figure.
Are you sure catch up is the right phrase? Are there any recent polls with splits based on race?
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You might argue that relative to a generic white Democratic candidate vs. a generic black Democratic candidate that Patrick is behind… but in pure numbers, who is polling higher amongst blacks, Patrick or Reilly?
The recent poll that had Reilly and Patrick running even at 40-40 doesn’t show splits based on race (or anything else), nor (as far as I can tell) do any of the State House News polls. I’ve edited accordingly.
the recent 40-40 UMass-Lowell poll doesn’t show any splits. The State House News polls have splits based on gender, age, region, education, and party, but not on race.
As someone who has helped do some organizing work for Deval Patrick, I simply don’t buy that Deval has issues in the African American communities. It’s a smokescreen, like the Globe’s story about the one Latino they found in Jamaica Plain who was supporting John Tobin over Gibran Rivera. The Globe likes to find the exception and blow it up as representative of some big trend. And because it’s in the newspaper, people think it must be true.
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I’ve spent some time in the African American community over the last few months, I’ve spoken with a lot of people, and the idea that Deval has problems in that community is just flat out false. Deval did exceedingly well in every majority-minority community in Boston during the caucuses, with the obvious exception of the Mayor’s home district.
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The two “name” African Americans most often cited are Wayne Budd and Ralph Martin. Surprise of suprise, two Republicans. The only other “name” African American he could come up with was Marie St. Fleur. How’s that working out for him? Are there other elected African Americans who have endorsed Reilly? I’ll happily compare endorsements from elected people of color with a Reilly supporter.
part of the problem is that many call all people of color African American when they are not. Marie St Fleur is a classic example, the woman is from Haitti. She may identify herself as Hatiian/American I do not know. It is very frustrating being called a heritage you are not. Newspapers generally lump all people of color into African American in a sad attempt to be poltically correct. So you are correct don’t buy the hype especially when the “hype” is not accurate.
I wrote a post about a Globe article that fell into that trap a little while back.