Report: Drop in black GOP delegates

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The number of black delegates to the U.S. Republican National Convention dropped by more than two-thirds from 2004, says a report from a research institute.

Black Republican delegates this year number 36, fewer than 2 percent of the total and a drop from the 2004 GOP record of 6.7 percent black delegates, USA Today reported Tuesday.

The Democratic Party reported a record 24.5 percent of the delegates at its convention last week were black.

That's nearly twice the percentage of blacks in the U.S. population, said the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which specializes in black issues and released the report.

The center predicted Republican presidential contender John McCain may receive a historically low share of the black vote in the November because of Democratic nominee Barack Obama's appeal to black voters and McCain's "association with President Bush, an exceptionally unpopular figure" among blacks.

The center said McCain also is hindered with black voters because his home state of Arizona has few blacks and there are no well-known black elected officials campaigning for McCain.