Juan Williams discusses the top political news of the week with Ron Walters, professor of political science at the University of Maryland, and the Rev. Joseph Watkins, a member of the government-relations group, Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. This week, a wrap-up of the midterm elections.
FARAI CHIDEYA, host: This is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Farai Chideya.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Now we've got NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams and a bunch of very excited political analysts on this week's midterm elections. Juan?</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Thanks, Farai. We're joined now by Ron Walters. He's a professor of political science at the University of Maryland. The professor's latest book is called Freedom is Not Enough. Also with us, Reverend Joseph Watkins. He's a member of the government relations groups at Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. Reverend Watkins was a member of the first President Bush's White House staff. Gentleman, thank you for joining us on this week's Political Corner.</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Good to be here.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Thanks, Juan.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Let's look at the five stars, if you will, of the political season in terms of black America. I'm talking about people like Michael Steele in Maryland, Harold Ford in Tennessee, Deval Patrick in Massachusetts, Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania, Ken Blackwell in Ohio. Of those five only one was a success. That was Deval Patrick, who won the gubernatorial race in Massachusetts.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Ron Walters, what does it say about the state of black politics that four out of the five failed?</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Well, it means that party has far more of a salience than race. When you look at black voters, black voters of course gave Blackwell - Ken Blackwell in Ohio 20 percent of their vote, Lynn Swann 13 and Michael Steele 27. Those are relatively good numbers, but they're still relatively low when you look at what blacks gave to the Democrats. That's an average of about 20 percentage points - 10 percentage points for all candidates.</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): So blacks are still very firmly in the Democratic column and they take their interests very seriously. And in this race, we're talking about very hot-button, strong issues, like the war in Iraq, the state of the economy and those things. It really trumped a lot of the local issues.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: By the way, Ron Walters, how was turnout?</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Turnout was good. I mean this is anecdotal right now, because we don't have the final figures. But I was on three conference calls arranged by the National Coalition of Black Civic Participation, and the reports coming in from the field was that the turnout was relatively heavy for a midterm election.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Joe Watkins, you know, there was concern that in fact many black voters might not feel they had much at stake, but you had black candidates on the ballot in these states. Do you think that made a difference? And do you see, maybe contrary to what Ron Walters is saying, that there might have been more of an interest on the part of black voters in Republican candidates? Because you did have a Michael Steele on the Republican ticket, because you did have a Ken Blackwell on the Republican side, a Lynn Swann?</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Well, clearly there is some forward movement in America with regards to how they view candidates. And Michael Steele ran, I think, a valiant race. He worked very, very hard to have the endorsement of a number of very influential African-Americans who are not Republicans, chief among them Russell Simmons and Cathy Hughes, as well as the endorsement of Wayne Curry, a very prominent Democrat in the state of Maryland.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): But that was not enough to get it done. He distanced himself in some regards from the president on some issues. But nonetheless he still garnered under the 30 percent of the black vote. But that's still a good number. The 27 percent that he good is still a fairly strong showing.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Ken Blackwell is no stranger to African-Americans in the state of Ohio, because he's run twice before for state office, having run once for state treasurer and secretary of state, and having won those offices in past years. He's well known in the state on the ballot. This was a tough year for anybody running in the state of Ohio has a Republican because of the economy and some of the corruption charges and the like. So I don't think it was so much a matter of African-Americans coming out for or against Ken Blackwell as much as it had to do with the climate in Ohio.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Lynn Swann just didn't have the money that he needed to get his message out. Otherwise I think he would've gotten a bigger number.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Joe Watkins, let me follow that up by saying that Barack Obama, who's kind of the star politician regardless of color these days, when he was campaigning against Michael Steele in Maryland, said, it's illegitimate for anybody to ask you to vote for them because you look like them. On the other hand, when he was in Tennessee campaigning for Harold Ford, he said it would be nice to have some company and not be the only black person there. How do you interpret this?</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Well, I interpret it is all politics are local. You know, when it suits the purpose, then it's good to bring out the acquaintance. And when it doesn't suit the purpose, of course, then you would draw the distinction. Barack Obama is a very talented, very smart politician and he's got real star power on the Democratic side. He's somebody who we're all going to be seeing lots of on the national scene for the next few years. And I think he just took full advantage of his present rising star to endorse candidates.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Clearly he was helpful to Ben Cardin in endorsing him in Maryland. And I'm sure he was a help as well to Harold Ford, although Harold Ford wasn't able to quite pull it off.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Ron Walters, did Obama help himself?</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Oh, he did help himself. As a matter of fact, he's in this phase where he's considering whether or not to run for president of the United States. I talked to him last week and he's still considering. He's getting into this race - I mean the rap on him is that he doesn't have a lot of resources, he hadn't been there very long.</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): But when you've helped as many people as he has helped just in this election cycle, you're bound to have a lot of political resources.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, let's keep on this topic for just a second, gentlemen. What happens to the losers? What happens to a Michael Steele? What happens to a Harold Ford, to a Ken Blackwell? Is the party going to take care of these individuals or are they gone for all time from the political scene? Ron Walters?</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): I think...</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Oh, Joe Watkins, go ahead.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): I'm sorry. I think that they're well able to take care of themselves. They're all very talented people. I think certainly when you talk about a Michael Steele, who's been lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland, or you talk about a Ken Blackwell, who's been secretary of state, they're easily able to shift into something else, be it the world of finance or in some cases if Michael Steele's a lawyer, he might want to go back into the world of law.</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): Harold Ford is a young, bright guy, talented guy. He can do anything he wants to do as well. So I don't think they'll be any problem with them shifting. The biggest challenge will be keeping their name out there.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: One last topic, gentlemen. The affirmative action initiative, which was to ban the use of affirmative action in Michigan, failed. This is an interesting one because you had the likes of Colin Powell and Julius Becton, former General Powell and Lieutenant General Becton, writing that they were opposed to this measure being sponsored by Ward Connelly as part of his effort, and now nationally, to get rid of affirmative action. Were you surprised at the outcome, Joe Watkins?</s>Reverend JOSEPH WATKINS (Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney): I was not surprised at the outcome, although I know that General Powell is a popular man, and obviously lots of people listen to what he has to say. I think that if I had to guess - and I haven't seen the breakdown of the numbers - but if I had to guess, it probably broke down along racial lines, where African-Americans, realizing the need to level the playing field, would've supported it, and the majority culture probably would've voted against it because they would see affirmative action, or they had been led to believe affirmative action leads to unfairness and to bias.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Ron Walters, very quickly.</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Yes, Joe's right. Here's a race where you had Granholm, a Democrat, win the governor's seat, Debbie Stabenow keeping her Senate seat, and yet it lost 56 to 43. And the numbers about the level of satisfaction among whites was 62 percent of whites voted against it and 86 percent of blacks voted for it. A very stark racial divide in that state.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Ron Walters is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland. And Joe Watkins is a member of the government relations group at Buchanan, Ingersoll and Rooney. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us this week on Political Corner.</s>Professor RON WALTERS (University of Maryland): Thank you, Juan.</s>WATSON: Thanks, Juan.</s>JUAN WILLIAMS: Back to you, Farai.</s>FARAI CHIDEYA, host: Thanks, Juan. NPR senior correspondent Juan Williams joins me every Thursday to wrap up the latest news from Capitol Hill on Political Corner.