A black man is running for governor in Alabama. And his chances are not dismissed out of hand. That ought to be something to celebrate. It couldn’t be imagined ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. But, what does a black man who wants to have a chance in a state-wide Alabama election think he needs to do? How does he position himself?
Of the Democratic lawmakers who distanced themselves from Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) , the most interesting may be Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who is running for governor in his home state. The 42-year-old lawmaker sits on the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chaired until he was forced to step aside last week, and also is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, which has maintained rock-solid support for Rangel.
Caucus members did not criticize Davis directly, but some, including Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (D-N.Y), one of Rangel’s best friends in Congress, said many of those who called for the chairman to step down did so for “political purposes.”
Davis also stood apart from the black caucus in November, as the only member of the caucus to vote against the House version of health-care legislation. He was condemned by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who said that “you can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man,” according to the Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
Davis said at the time that he preferred the Senate bill, but now he opposes that version as well. Davis’s office said Monday that he will vote no if the House decides to take up the Senate bill, as is expected, and he has criticized his Democratic primary opponent, Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, for speaking favorably of the Democratic health-care effort.
Davis’s position on health care and his rebuke of Rangel could aid his campaign in Alabama. Obama received only 39 percent of the vote there, and Davis will have to woo conservative voters to win. The lawmaker is considered the favorite in the June Democratic primary, but he could face an uphill climb in November against whoever emerges from the seven-candidate GOP field.
“A comprehensive, 2000-page, near-$1 trillion dollar overhaul of the health-care system is just too cumbersome and too costly in a time of trillion-dollar deficits,” he said.
I don’t have a problem with him distancing himself from Charlie Rangel and I think Jesse Jackson Jr.’s remark was probably too harsh (although I definitely understand where he was coming from). But it’s just sad to see a guy like Artur Davis, who has such a stellar resume, feel compelled to turn his back on the biggest Democratic project in three generations just to pander to a sliver of the white vote in Alabama. According to the exit polls, Barack Obama received just 10% of the white vote in Alabama. Davis certainly has to do considerably better than that to have any chance of being elected governor. But Davis, who was “the recipient of the Best Oralist Award in the esteemed Ames Moot Court Competition at Harvard Law School,” ought to use his rhetorical skills to explain how health care reform will help rural white Alabamans more than any legislation passed in most of their lifetimes. Instead, he chooses to go the predictable route which, even if it worked, would likely leave him with a prize not worth having. After all, why run for office if you can’t implement your principles?
