Obama Election Watch

Undoubtedly, Barack Obama will win the lion’s share of the black vote this November. But further increases in black voter turnout could insure victories in the closely contested battleground states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, and Florida. In these states alone there are 1 million or more African Americans who are not registered to vote.

A significant and further increase in black voter turnout for Obama is likely as more African Americans become aware of John McCain’s voting record, which over many years has been consistently directed at blocking the paths to equality and opportunity for African Americans.

Voting decisions of whites, too, may be an issue. Few U.S. citizens today know that McCain’s legislative record has been consistently hostile to the aspirations of black Americans.

Here is the record:

• McCain voted four times against the 1990 Civil Rights Act, including a vote to sustain a presidential veto. This bill would have strengthened enforcement provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 regarding employment discrimination against blacks.

• In 1983 McCain opposed the creation of a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Seventy-eight of the nation’s 100 senators, including many Republicans, supported the legislation.

• Six years later, in 1989, McCain supported an unsuccessful effort to rescind a holiday on Martin Luther King’s birthday for state workers in Arizona.

• In 1994 McCain voted to eliminate federal funds that would go toward celebrating the Martin Luther King holiday.

• In 2000 McCain said he viewed the Confederate flag as a symbol of southern heritage and not as a symbol of racism or bigotry. He later admitted that he took this position to attract conservative southern voters in the 2000 presidential primaries.

• In 1999 McCain voted for an amendment that would have gutted the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires banks to document their investment practices in black and minority communities.

• In 2004 McCain voted to authorize a huge cut of $14 billion in Medicaid funding. Medicaid is the government medical program for millions of impoverished blacks and other low-income people.

• During McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, one of his chief campaign strategists was a supporter of former KKK Imperial wizard David Duke. His name was Richard Quinn.

• McCain received a consistent grade of F on the legislative report card issued by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for all four of the last Congresses from 1999 to 2006.

• In the 106th Congress that was in session from 1999 to 2000, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People gave the same rating to McCain on racial issues that it awarded to segregationist senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Both senators supported the NAACP position on only 7 percent of the votes.

• In 2001 McCain opposed an amendment that would have required the states to provide equal funding to schools in low-income areas as they provided for schools in wealthier districts.

• In 1999 McCain opposed a federal measure that would have corrected unequal treatment of blacks and other minorities in the juvenile justice system.

• That same year McCain voted against a bill that would have required the states to investigate why minority youths made up a disproportionate share of the defendants in the juvenile justice system.

• In 2000 McCain voted against an amendment that would have permitted federal authorities to support local law enforcement agencies’ investigations of hate crimes.

• In 2001 McCain voted against a proposal to create 1,000 high-technology centers in inner-city areas so that disadvantaged citizens could win access to the Internet.

• In 2002 Senator McCain voted against a measure that would have provided an additional $400 million to fight AIDS in Africa and other foreign lands.

• In 2003 McCain voted against an amendment that would have provided an additional $540 million for the minority health programs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• In 2003 the senator voted against an amendment that would have provided an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to workers who had been out of a job for six months. The black unemployment rate in the United States is consistently twice the rate of whites.

• In 2003 McCain voted against a proposal to provide $6.2 billion for schools in low-income neighborhoods.

• In 2003 the senator voted against an amendment providing $350 million for Head Start programs. The amendment failed to pass by a single vote.

• In 2005 Senator McCain voted against a bill that would have provided $3.1 billion in emergency funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

• In 2006 McCain opposed a bill that would have increased the maximum federal Pell Grant award for low-income college students. Each year, a half-million or more young blacks depend on Pell Grants to help them pay their college tuition.

Caution: OEW repeats its view that the Obama campaign is likely to invite harmful backlash if it advances the racial record of McCain as an issue in the campaign. Yet the truth about McCain’s hurtful record on race and civil rights should become a well-understood matter of public record known to all voters.