From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Anti-Kerry Ads on Black Radio

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Anti-Kerry Ads on Black Radio

August 14, 2004

Recently, I blogged a Jason Riley Opinion Journal piece suggesting Republicans need to fight years of negative political ads on major market black radio.

The WaPo reports an independent political committee is doing just that, targeting John Kerry's campaign for President. And it turns out school choice is actually at the root of it.

First, though, The Post wants us to be appalled that:

...The D.C.-based group, People of Color United, has substantial financial backing from J. Patrick Rooney, the former chairman of Golden Rule Insurance Co. and the founder of a new firm, Medical Savings Insurance Co. Both firms specialize in medical savings accounts, created by Republican-backed 1996 legislation, and health savings accounts, which were created by President Bush's 2003 Medicare prescription drug legislation.
One of the radio ads addresses Kerry's failure to vote on a bill to extend unemployment benefits for 13 weeks: "It needed 60 votes to pass. Ninety-nine out of 100 senators voted -- Kerry did not! It lost by one vote! Maybe Kerry thought the more of us who are unemployed and hurting, the more likely we would vote Democrat."

Another ad attacks Teresa Heinz Kerry, who, at the Democratic convention last month cited her birth and upbringing in Mozambique and who has described herself as African American. In the radio commercial, the announcer says: "His wife says she's an African American. While technically true, I don't believe a white woman, raised in Africa, surrounded by servants, qualifies."

....Rooney....gave $30,000 for People of Color United's radio ads that are being aired in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Kansas City and other urban areas with large minority populations.

Down a ways in the story, the Post finally gets close to the real heart of the piece: school choice is a serious concern to a growing segment of the black community, and Democrats, including Kerry, have yet to demonstrate Bush's huge commitment in that area.

In all, the group has spent $70,000 to buy air time on black radio stations for ads designed to undermine African American support for the Democratic presidential nominee, according to Virginia Walden-Ford, a Republican advocate of school vouchers who runs People of Color United. She described Rooney as the largest donor, adding that her group has received other "smaller contributions."
Walden-Ford said she was disturbed by conversations with people in the black community who said they plan to vote for the Democratic ticket "because we [African Americans] are Democrats. I think that is a bad way to vote. I want people to be informed."

Rooney, she said, has been an active supporter of her efforts to create a school voucher program in the nation's capital. "Pat is a good friend, an ally in the school choice effort," she said.

I hope to hear about more such independent, Bush-friendly ads on black and Hispanic radio and TV, especially in swing states.

Via Americans Against Discrimination and Preferences. Check out their blog, Right on Race, too.