Date: Feature Week of May 4, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Economic
Author: William Reed
Article ID: article_ema050403a

IS SHARPTON�S PRESIDENTIAL BID �PROTEST� OR �POWER� POLITICS?

Some comments in Al Sharpton�s presidential campaign stance can be baffling: "We've got to stop the corporate mentality of politics and go back to the people".  Sharpton needs to get it straight, because: �He who accounts all things easy will have many difficulties�.

When Sharpton says,  "We've reduced America too much now to who has the dollars rather than who has the message" he ignores the fact that, these days, governments are populated by the moneyed, for the moneyed.  The people with the bucks and committed backers win.  Just in case Sharpton hasn�t looked, the way to make a bang with the message is to have big bucks.  The total price of the 2000 congressional and presidential elections was almost $3 billion.  TV ads, political consultants, and other campaign spending for the 2004 elections will be far beyond the 2000 amount.

Al and just �the message� will not be enough.  In its first financial report for the 2004 race, Sharpton�s campaign reported $115,000, just a fraction of the fund-raising reported by white Democratic candidates.  According to Federal Election Commission filings, millionaire Senators John Kerry and John Edwards have collected $8 million and $7 million respectively.  Others are Rep. Dick Gephardt $4.9 million; Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, $2 million; Sen. Joe Lieberman, $1.8 million; Florida Sen. Bob Graham, $1.1 million and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, $50,397.  Lyndon LaRouce has $3 million raised, but Democrat party leaders view him with similar distain as they view Sharpton�s bid.  Only former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois trails Sharpton with $75,000.

Sharpton and Moseley-Braun are the first African Americans to seek the Democratic nomination since Jesse Jackson, in 1984 and 1988, and Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who briefly ran in 1992.  In a field of candidates without proven nation appeal among Blacks, Sharpton�s presence; particularly, intensifies competition for our votes in the primaries.

It�s going to take more than the message to win, but Black-oriented themes and issues Sharpton can bring to the table are worthwhile.  "Historically, Sharpton has managed to run worthwhile campaigns without having to raise the same kind of money that other people have," says the former campaign manager.  He attributes Sharpton's ability to operate with scant resources to his celebrity and ability to work the grassroots.  It�s true Sharpton gets more access to unpaid media than any other Democrat presidential candidate, but, to date, that exposure has never won him an election.

To be more than an oddity, Sharpton needs Black contributors to help him rise in stature and creditability.  His message has already reached some of the big name Blacks in academia, politics, and the media.  Among them are Cornell West, Princeton professor, and Charles Ogletree, Harvard law professor.  Who�s Who in Black Corporate America is already bankrolling him: Napoleon Brandford, chairman of the nation's second-largest Black-owned investment bank; Percy Sutton, a prominent New York lawyer and owner of Inner City Cable and the Apollo Theater; Cathy Hughes, owner of Radio One; Earl Graves Jr. of Black Enterprise magazine; Atlanta venture capitalist Clinton Barrow, and wife Collette; fast-food franchisee LaVan Hawkins and other officials of Hawkins Food Group; and Robert L. Johnson of Black Entertainment Television.  Others include: radio host Tom Joyner; Newark Mayor Sharpe James; Detroit TV news anchor Carolyn Clifford; and Abner Louima, the New York police torture victim Sharpton helped win a $8.75 million settlement.

The polls show money as America�s number one domestic issue.  For Blacks, economics, housing, justice and social status are serious issues that need to be publicly discussed.  If Blacks are to ever be players in power politics, Al Sharpton�s race could be the way.  But, those who think just voting and participating in Town Hall meetings will get it, really don�t: Money brings honor, friends, conquest and the ability to reach new realms.  

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