As Democrats search for a way to rebound against the GOP, they will now want to look at Louisiana. Bill Clinton (who won the state twice) bonded with blacks while wooing a decent percentage of rural whites, too. But for a variety of reasons–Bush’s popularity as war commander, his stress on Bible-belt religious values, the lack of a clear countermessage or charismatic messenger–the Democrats in 2002, for the most part, were wiped out in the South. Increasingly shunned by white voters, the party turned to African-Americans to make up the difference.
The strategy paid off in Louisiana. Focusing on growing doubts about Bush’s handling of the economy, organizers flooded “the community.” Beyond that, said consultant Joe Ruffin, Democrats in Washington need to understand what is clear in New Orleans: that black leaders are no longer old-style liberals who favor “big government” handouts. “The era of poverty pimps is long gone,” he said. “The place we need to look for ideas and leadership is in the cities and counties, where there’s a new generation of practical, centrist leaders.”
That “new generation” is planning to assert itself in the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, NEWSWEEK has learned. Under a plan assembled by Brazile–long a centrist herself and a top official of Al Gore’s campaign in 2000–black leaders would run in their respective states as “favorite sons,” potentially locking up the African-American vote (which, in the South, can be 40 percent of primary turnout) and going to the convention with what Brazile estimates could be up to 1,500 delegates–influencing the platform, and perhaps even the choice for the ticket. “We’re looking at the rules and the legal details right now,” she told NEWSWEEK. Among those who might run: Wellington Webb, the former mayor of Denver; Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick; South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, and former New Orleans mayor Marc Morial.
A “Favorite Brothers and Sisters” campaign is bad news for some white Democratic hopefuls. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is hoping to use his milltown roots and plaintiff’s-attorney populism to replicate Bill Clinton’s biracial appeal in the South. Gore, well liked by blacks if for no other reason than he was Clinton’s vice president, had hoped that Brazile would join him if he runs again in 2004; Brazile, who’s checking out the opposition by lunching with Bush consigliere Karl Rove in the White House mess, has politely declined. Morial told NEWSWEEK that “national” Democrats, including the presidential contenders, needed to “return to the grass roots”–tended these days by numerous black pols. The idea isn’t to win the nomination or pick ideological fights, he said, but to “have a real seat at the table.” Onstage last Thursday at the Municipal Auditorium in New Orleans, he led the cheers for Landrieu. But in the crowded corridors, he and Brazile already had their eyes on the next–and bigger–prize.
