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Angling for Hip-Hop Appeal
Russell Simmons and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele meet with students, including Seth Ragin, 6, at an event at the Laurel Boys and Girls Club.
(By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Other Democrats, though, have called his strategy a cynical attempt to divert attention from his own biography: that of a social conservative who chaired the state Republican party and worked aggressively on behalf of President Bush.
State Democratic Party Chairman Terry Lierman yesterday advised against reading too much into the endorsements.
"I think it's two individuals supporting a right-wing candidate who does not reflect the values and priorities of Marylanders," Lierman said. "When the time to vote comes, people will know that a vote for Steele is a vote for Bush."
Steele has consistently trailed in polls that match him against one of the leading Democrats in the party's crowded primary field, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore. Polls have shown Steele in a statistical tie against the other Democratic front-runner, former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume.
Mfume said yesterday that the significance of the Simmons and Hughes endorsements was "lost on me."
But Brazile, who has long warned the Democratic party not ignore its black voters, saw significance.
She called the endorsements a "shot across the bow" for the Democratic Party. That cry rose in Maryland four years ago, when Republicans became the first to nominate, then elect, an African American to statewide office: Steele.
"This should be a wake-up call," Brazile said. "You cannot take your most loyal base for granted. You cannot assume that just because people are black they will vote Democratic."
Where Simmons and Hughes could also prove to be powerful allies is in the image they present to younger black voters who may not feel the same tug of loyalty to the Democrats as do those who lived through the civil rights era.
An internal Democratic Party report found as much, saying that "at this time, a majority of African American voters are open to supporting Steele, particularly younger voters."
The March 27 report, by strategist Cornell Belcher, found that the most likely black voters to migrate to Steele would be men ages 18 to 29.
Simmons, who has long reigned as one of the entertainment industry's most capable promoters, is someone who can help Steele reach that demographic, said Brazile, who worked with Simmons when he went on a nationwide drive that registered 4,000 new Democrats in 2004.
