He's the Lt. Gov. of Maryland.
He's a Republican.
He's also Black.
He lead the effort to revamp the Minority Business Enterprise effort in Maryland. They expect Black business to go from getting 1-3% of Maryland state contracts, to about 15-20%. (That's from memory so it may be wrong).
He's a long time Republican.
After Ellen Sauerbry lost her second run for Maryland gov., she was offered the spot to head the Maryland GOP. She refused and suggested Steele get the spot. She did so because she got hammered by Black voters.
When he was the GOP chair, he went on WOLB, a Black talk radio station in Baltimore, and had a weekly show where he represented Republican interests. He caught some heat, but he also earned respect. He also didn't try to say that the GOP didn't have problem.
When Robert Ehrlich (R) made a run for gov., his first choice was a female Democrat but she refused. He then tapped Steele. Before he accepted, he made it clear to Erhlich that they had to go for the Black vote. Previously, Ehrlich said that he would not concede the Black vote, so they agreed in that area.
Ehrlich won. Now Bush has tapped him to head the Black Republican for Bush effort. Now he's going to give a keynote address at the GOP convention.
And he's going to appear at the Hip Hop Forum.
I like Steele.
But it still stinks that Black Republicans are left to clean up the mess left by white Republicans.
Posted by at August 24, 2004 08:22 PM | TrackBack
We'll see how far he gets before he hits the same walls that JC did.
Posted by: walter at August 27, 2004 11:47 PM