http://www.friendsofyvonnerbrown.org/aboutyvonne I think Yvonne looks like a great candidate. She supports: SCHOOL CHOICE SANCTITY OF LIFE AFRICA INITIATIVE EMPOWERMENT ZONES 2nd AMENDMENT
Posted on 10/29/2006 7:19:12 PM PST by WKB
CANTON, Miss. - The Republican Party touted Yvonne Brown as the ideal congressional candidate to represent Mississippi's 2nd District - black, polished and a proven winner.
Still, Brown, a two-term mayor of Tchula, needed a lot of cash to challenge incumbent political powerhouse U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and that's where the Republican Party has come up short.
Brown said she's received very little money from the GOP's national political action committees.
Brown isn't bitter, but she believes the lack of financial support might deter other blacks from joining the Republican Party, which has been promoting itself as inclusive to minorities.
"I think they will probably be less likely to expose themselves to this type of hard work," said Brown, who is trying to unseat Thompson in a district that is predominantly black and Democrat.
Brown is among a handful of black Republicans across the country who bucked their community's traditional Democratic affiliation to embrace the Republican Party.
Some, such as former NFL player Lynn Swann, who is running for governor in Pennsylvania, have received substantial campaign contributions from the GOP.
Those who haven't were not slighted because of the color of their skin, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Barbour said over the last six decades, Republicans have always lost seats during the second midterm election of a two-term Republican presidency.
"In a year when Republicans are trying to protect their majorities, there is a tendency to first try to protect their incumbents.
"Yvonne Brown is probably the strongest opponent Republicans have ever had against Bennie Thompson, but it's a hard year," Barbour said.
A financial report filed with the Federal Elections Commission showed Brown had $5,108 left in her campaign after raising a total of $111,062 through Oct. 18. She said more than 50 percent of her campaign funds came from individual donors.
Thompson has $368,727 after raising $1.2 million through Oct. 18.
Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Jim Herring said the state GOP had contributed $5,000 to Brown, the maximum allowed under campaign finance laws. He said the party also mentions Brown on its "turnout-the-vote" literature.
"I believe she'll get over 40 percent of the vote for sure," said Herring. "It's tough when you hadn't got big sums of money."
Thompson, who is also black, is described by Republicans as being too liberal, but he has a firm grip on his district. The 2nd District stretches from the predominantly black, perpetually poor Delta into Hinds County and other southern counties along the Mississippi River.
Brown shouldn't expect to receive hefty donations from national political action committees, said Republican Bill Jordan of Jackson, a black attorney who lost a race against Thompson in 1994.
"PACs don't give money against incumbents. That's a myth that they do," said Jordan.
Jordan said he "got very, very solid support" from state Republicans and raised over $360,000 for his campaign more than a decade ago.
The high-profile gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania shows a different side of the GOP's funding support for black Republicans this year.
The Republican Governors Association has given Swann at least $500,000, making it the former NFL player's No. 1 campaign contributor as he challenges Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.
It's a similar situation in Maryland, where Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is seeking the open Senate seat. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has been one of Steele's biggest contributors in his race against Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin, who is white.
And, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have gone to Maryland to stump for Steele.
Herman Cain, a black Republican who failed in a 2004 Senate bid in Georgia and wrote a book called "They Think You're Stupid," arguing blacks shouldn't keep voting Democratic, said the GOP makes its funding priorities based on the candidate's chances of winning, not on ethnicity.
Cain said a lack of party funding for a black GOP candidate creates the appearance that the GOP is not backing its message of inclusiveness with financial support.
"I'm sure it sends that perception, but people have to look beyond that perception," Cain said.
In the days leading up to Nov. 7, Brown has been visiting businesses, schools and just about any place she can to introduce herself to voters. A recent lunch stop at Catherine's Back Porch restaurant in Canton proved lucrative.
While making her platform pitch to Ben Barnette and Neal Rich, two white electrical engineers, Brown identified herself as the Republican candidate.
A few minutes later, Rich reached into his wallet and gave her a small stack of crisp $20 bills.
Mississippi ping
I wonder how her support compares with others who are running in lopsidedly Democrat districts.
I figure it's pretty close.
She or no one else will ever beat Bennie Thompson.
He keeps his slaves on the plantation.
Bennie is going to be chairman of Homeland security if the Dems take the house.
Bennie is going to be chairman of Homeland security if the Dems take the house.
Don't remind me.
They're Ignoring Eric Dickerson (R), who recently had a slight lead over incumbent Julia Carson(D) in IN 7th
she's dying but won't quit IMHO
This is insane. One -- one! -- candidate in an insanely longshot race doesn't get as much money as she wants and the reporters blame the GOP for being racist?
The MSM is getting desperate.
Didn't Tchula get wiped out by a tornado in the 1970's?
What is so great about incumbency? Who benefits most from it?
I bet sheila is a rat HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Maybe it won't be all bad. My family has already started joking about how many $100 million "Defending our cotton and soybeans from Al-Quaeda" boondoggles are going to be coming to the area.
So -- those of us who can should help her.
Tchula is also home to Saul Haymond, Sr., a sharecropper who won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his primitive painting in 1995. His work is beautiful. I believe he still is a sharecropper.
http://www.friendsofyvonnerbrown.org/aboutyvonne I think Yvonne looks like a great candidate. She supports: SCHOOL CHOICE SANCTITY OF LIFE AFRICA INITIATIVE EMPOWERMENT ZONES 2nd AMENDMENT
I already cast my absentee ballot for her.... wish I could help out financially, but I'm a broke student eating macaroni at the moment ;)
I would have donated to all the conservative black Republican candidates if I had the money to do it. Maybe another time. I hope they do well.
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