CNN NewsWire: Steele Endorsed by Prince George's County Executove Wayne Curry, 5 Other Democrats Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

From the CNN NewsWire, October 30, 2006:

Former Prince George's County Executive Wayne Curry and five sitting council members crossed party lines Monday and endorsed Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's senate bid.

Curry, who is black, charged that Prince George's African-American community has been long overlooked by the Democratic Party.

"We have been neglected, overlooked and disparaged in the sanctums of the Democratic Party...Prince George's County has been geographically redlined and stratified," Curry said in his endorsement remarks. "It is the place where there is more Democratic voting than any other place in Maryland..."

Smart move, Ben, ducking the Charles County NAACP debate. Really smart. Oh yeah, not knowing the biggest transportation plan in a bi-county region of 1.8 million people out of the 5.6 million you aim to represent...where? In the Senate?

Prince George's County's Black residents are tired, tired, tired of getting ignored. The Democratic Party has indeed ignored them, from Kathleen Kennedy Townsend bringing on a white Republican rather than a black Democrat in a state party that is damn near 50% Black, to a white-out absence of the second largest jurisdiction in the state from state-wide Democratic candidacy (yes, I know that Anthony Brown is the LG nominee), to smaller indignities like Schaefer lording over his love of Baltimore in awarding contracts against PG Prince George's County development opportunities, to small indignities like the informal reference to "PG" which chafes at the dignity of many, many proud County residents. They are the wealthiest majority-Black county in the United States, but have a hard time getting upscale retail to come due to outdated perceptions and devaluing of the prosperity and success of that community.

You know what's easy to find in Prince George's County: Starbucks. (Sadly, not yet in Upper Marlboro....) What's not easy to find are people who are willing to be taken for granted.

Wayne Curry has long had some close "diplomatic relations" with the Republican Party and it did not surprise me to see his endorsement, he had almost made the endorsement already. The other African-American leaders' endorsement surprised me more, but not terribly.

Payback's a bitch, and the one thing that the Democratic Party cannot do is ignore Black Democrats. Consider: the two largest counties in Maryland, both affluent, one majority black, one majority white, are extremely likely to have Black County Executives in the three months: Jack Johnson in Prince George's and Isiah "Ike" Leggett in Montgomery. Ignore Black Democrats - especially in Prince George's County - at your peril.