Prometheus 6

THERE ARE A LOT of reasons why: lack of a coherent agenda to measure officials against, a romantic belief that black politicians always have the interests of black people at heart, fear of jeopardizing the increasingly tenuous state of black representation by complaining about it and — this is particularly acute in L.A. — a tendency to see politicians as celebrities. There's also the practical impossibility of figuring out exactly who's responsible for what hasn't been done — the old conundrum of proving a negative.

Black isn't enough
Issues, not just a politician's skin color, should matter to African American voters.
Erin Aubry Kaplan
June 30, 2007

THE SENSE OF triumph was almost audible in the giant banner headline that ran in last week's Los Angeles Sentinel, the city's oldest black newspaper: "Laura Richardson Wins".

Richardson, the first-term assemblywoman from Long Beach, will likely be catapulted to Congress after a special election to fill the House seat of Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died in April. Out of a field of 17 Democrats, Richardson came in first. She still faces a runoff among the winners from other parties in August, but she's the overwhelming favorite in the heavily Democratic district.

Consternation over who would replace McDonald in the 37th Congressional District had been rampant among the black political elite and others who felt that another African American must replace McDonald. They wanted to maintain a hold on a black seat, even as the district's Latino population surges. In fact, Richardson's top challenger was a Latina, fellow state legislator Jenny Oropeza, which only increased blacks' fear of displacement and ratcheted up the stakes.

The Sentinel's glee isn't surprising — in this era of dwindling percentages, any win for black folks is viewed as complete victory, an end in itself.

It's understandable. It's also too bad. Lost in the obsession about the horse race was any discussion of what Richardson might actually do for black constituents. It's a discussion that happens all too rarely, as this virtually issue-free campaign made clear.