News Release

* Perspectives on a “Southern Strategy” * The First Primary: D.C. * Reparations Lawsuit Filed

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KEVIN GRAY
A contributing editor to Black News in Columbia, S.C., Gray is author of the forthcoming book The Death of Black Politics. He said today: “The Democratic Party needs to consider a different ‘Southern strategy.’ In South Carolina, there are 800,000 eligible black voters and 575,175 registered black voters; only 282,000 voted in 2002. It’s not just a matter of registration; it’s a matter of turnout. You need to go door to door in low-income areas. The black community can be energized around economic issues as well as the occupation of Iraq.”

JOE VELASQUEZ
STEVE COBBLE
Authors of the article “Blue States, Latino Voters” in the Jan. 5 issue of The Nation, Velasquez and Cobble said today: “For almost 40 years now the white South has been moving steadily into the Republican ranks. Indeed, white Southerners now run the GOP and provide a very high proportion of its cultural shock troops…. The new path to the White House runs through the Latino Southwest, not the former Confederacy…. There are as many unregistered Latinos who are American citizens as there were Latino voters in 2000 — more than 5.5 million. These potential voters are not likely Bush voters, despite Republican rhetoric.” Cobble serves as strategic adviser to the Kucinich campaign. Velasquez directs Moving America Forward, which registers and mobilizes Latinos. The opinions in the article are their own.
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ADAM EIDINGER
A member of the D.C. Statehood Green Party steering committee, Eidinger said today: “The first primary in the country is not in Iowa or New Hampshire, it’s in D.C. and it’s tomorrow. Some are pointing to a Democratic Party primary in D.C., but it’s been tremendously watered down — it’s non-binding, and most of the candidates are not participating. At the debate last week, only Sharpton, Kucinich and Moseley-Braun showed up. The delegates from D.C. will actually be chosen in a caucus later this year that will likely be dominated by Democratic Party officials, who largely back Dean…. The Democrats’ refusal to make the D.C. primary binding is typical of their not seriously pursing D.C. statehood. Residents of D.C. continue to not have voting rights; if this were a Republican city, they would have beaten the Democrats to a bloody pulp to get statehood.”
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BOB BROWN
Co-director of Pan-African Roots, Brown last week filed a lawsuit “on behalf of all descendants of enslaved Africans in Africa and the African Diaspora who have been victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, segregation and apartheid. Among the defendants are the U.S., British, French and Spanish governments, the Vatican and a number of corporations. The case also names companies which have not complied with the Chicago Slavery Era Disclosure Act, passed by the Chicago City Council in 2002.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167