NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- For the first time in the history of the state of New York, an African-American has gained the nod of one of the major parties to run for the governor's office.
There is no question here, however, that the reason Carl McCall won the Democratic Party primary Sept. 10 has very little to do with his ethnic heritage. McCall is a longtime party stalwart who held several elected and appointed positions in New York City before running for and winning election as New York State's comptroller -- in effect, its chief fiscal watchdog.
It was a position that made him one of the most recognizable politicians in the state as well as one of the nation's most powerful publicly elected financial officers. By all accounts he compiled an admirable record of service in that as in his other posts.
Despite that, McCall initially appeared to be facing a tough challenge from Andrew Cuomo, the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton Administration. Cuomo's high visibility stemmed not only from his own political record but also from that fact that he was the son of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and was married to a daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy. But it was Cuomo who dropped out of the primary race in early September.
Now, McCall faces his most formidable challenge: New York's popular Republican governor George Pataki. There is a third contestant in the race: wealthy conservative business Tom Golisano, who may siphon votes from Pataki's right flank.
The National Urban League is a nonpartisan organization; so my purpose here is not to endorse any of these or any other candidates. In fact, I am all in favor of energizing even more powerfully our vaunted "two-party system."
But for that to happen, both major parties have to be willing to play the political game with all of America's electorate. Right now, only one -- the Democrats -- does. The Republican Party, when it comes to electoral politics, prefers to sit on the sidelines.
Oh, yes, I know that is not the fashionable view. The fashionable view, the emperor-has-no-clothes conventional wisdom is that: African Americans blindly vote Democratic without regard to their true interests or understanding of how American politics works; the Democratic Party takes blacks for granted; the Republicans are interested in black voters but can't get a hearing from them.
That is a fashionable view that ignores some startling recent facts.
First, there was the 2000 GOP convention, where the percent of black delegates -- the ones who help decide the party platform -- hovered around four percent, its lowest level in decades.
Second, in the 2000 election 24 African-American Republicans ran for Congress. Of that number, only incumbent Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts, the lone black Republican in Congress, won. What does it say about the GOP that it could capture the White House but not elect even one of 23 black candidates to Congress?
Third, of course now Watts, who held the fourth-ranking post on the House Republican leadership team, has said that even he is leaving Congress at the end of this term.
Watts, who at one time was touted at proof of the GOP's determination to capture a significant share of the black electorate, was circumspect about the reasons for his stunning announcement. But his actions seem a powerful seconding of a view expressed two years ago shortly after the GOP Convention by Faye M. Anderson, a former top official of the Republican National Committee.
Anderson had directed what she described as "the Sisyphean challenge of broadening [the GOP's] appeal to the 30 percent of African Americans who, according to poll after poll, share mainstream conservative beliefs ..." before resigning because "it was past time for the party to move beyond the oratory of inclusion."
Fourth, even as black elected officeholders at all levels of government have now passed the 9,000 mark, according to the latest data collected by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, black Republicans are still few and far between in that cohort.
The fact that the two African-American Democrats -- McCall in New York, and Nevada state senator Joseph Neal -- have captured their party's nominations for the critical office of governor underscores Anderson's words and Watts' gesture questioning whether the GOP really believes inclusion is a Republic Party principle.
What, I wonder, would be the media's reaction if McCall and Neal had been Republicans? Will we ever find out? That is, will the GOP ever support black candidates for their party's high positions?
Speaking in strictly non-partisan terms, I, for one, hope the answer is: yes, and soon.
(Hugh B. Price is president of the National Urban League. "Outside View" commentaries are written for UPI by outside writers who specialize in a variety of important global issues.)
