Elections 06- "Whoever Wins, We Lose"

Prince George's Dems Attempts to go after apathic Blacks.


I think I know why they're so apathetic:

Maryland Democrats are hoping that bringing the highly popular Barack Obama back to Prince George’s County next week will wake up the county’s increasingly apathetic black voters.

Details of Obama’s visit next week were still being worked out on Thursday, but his return to Democrat-rich Prince George’s marks the second time that he will lend his name — and media-attracting star power — to the statewide ticket. He headlined a Democratic unity rally at the University of Maryland, College Park, late last month.

He stressed that O’Malley and Cardin would be fine in Prince George’s, but he acknowledged the difficulty of getting Washington-area voters excited about two Baltimore politicians. He compared the situation to 1986 when Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer (D) was running for governor.

‘‘To some people, Baltimore is like a foreign world,” Miller said.

The lack of high interest among Prince Georgians is multifaceted: They’re fed up with the negative campaigning. They don’t feel enough attention has been paid to the Washington suburbs. And there is palpable resentment that the Democratic establishment’s support helped a white candidate, Cardin, defeat a black candidate, former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, for the Senate nomination.

African Americans also feel disenfranchised because the Democratic nominees for U.S. Senate, governor, comptroller and attorney general are all white, said Wayne Clark, a Prince George’s political consultant who is working with Ehrlich.

Bringing Obama back only proves how worried the Democratic Party is about holding its own in Prince George’s, he said.

‘‘You can’t ignore the African-American community for 40 years and then, a few days before the election, bring in someone to tell African Americans to run to the polls like sheep,” Clark said. ‘‘The Democrats can bring in whatever national figure they want, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have consistently neglected the African-American vote.”

Sen. Leo E. Green (D-Dist. 23) of Bowie said he has never seen so much voter apathy. He attributed the lack of energy not to racial issues, but to the negative campaigning and the plummeting reputation of the federal government.

I understand their pain to all Black Prince Georgian's that feel that this election is pointless. Besides even though the Democrat-controled County Council would make thing better for the county, it didn't. I'll take one example: The Prince George's "The Bus", if they were smart they would replace their old buses from 1990's with sleek, low-floor buses that's all the rage in Europe.

But instead, they rather keep the old buses. They could have included weekend service using the same weekend schedule for those areas not served by metrobus, but alas there isn't.

And if you think there is a alternative, good luck, Prince George's county is by all intents and purposes a Democrat controlled county, as a matter of fact I found out that in one position there are three democrats running for that seat.

Don't believe me? (Prince George's County candidates start at page 200.)