[Posted Jan. 2, 2008]

Cong. Black Caucus Split Between Obama, Clinton

By Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Editor-in-Chief
 
    WASHINGTON (NNPA) – As America prepares for a string of primaries and caucuses to determine who will be its next Democratic and Republican nominees for president, the majority of the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus who have chosen to endorse in the race is split 15-15 between CBC member Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. In interviews this week, CBC members pointed mainly to the candidates’ stances on specific issues as the reasons for their endorsements.
“He is the most likely to actually produce change in areas that make a difference—home ownership, education, health care, crime policy,” says U. S. Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), explaining his endorsement of Obama.
    Scott, who chairs the House Crime Subcommittee, says, “For years we’ve concentrated on and focused more on codifying...sound bites rather than seriously addressing crime.''
He adds that he is impressed with Obama’s record on health care and the war in Iraq.
   “He led the charge to get more people health insurance in the Illinois legislature...He also had the strength of character and courage to stand up against the Iraqi war.”
    U. S Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), who has announced her endorsement of Clinton, says she believes Clinton’s long record of service to children shows where her heart really is.
    She says she is especially impressed that Clinton, as a young lawyer, served as a staff attorney for Marian Wright Edelman's Children's Defense Fund during her post graduate studies and that she served as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children.

   “This is a very important election and I do think that as people begin to know Sen. Clinton and they know her personally and they know her story.  

   “She has an enormously convincing story of someone who has empathy and out of empathy, one can act upon the pain of others and the joy of others,” says Jackson-Lee.
    While Scott says his endorsement of Obama has nothing to do with the fact that he is Black, Jackson-Lee made no bones about what she sees as an opportunity to raise the ceiling for women in America.
   “I do think that as women, whether it is minority women or majority women, we have a long way to go. Now, it is frankly innovative and inspiring that America would find its way to possibly selecting someone who has both talent and experience who happens to be a woman, which would make us move to where countries around the world have already gone in selecting women as heads of state,” Jackson-Lee says.
    John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, has three endorsements from CBC members.
   “Too many women are not getting the health care they need,” said U. S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) in a statement posted on the Edwards campaign website. “John Edwards is the only candidate to outline a specific plan to provide universal coverage and I'm proud to be part of a campaign—the only campaign—with a detailed plan to cover all Americans.”
    Eight CBC members had not made public endorsements by NNPA deadline: Eleanor Holmes Norton of D.C.; Jim Clyburn of S.C.; Bennie Thompson of Miss.; Al Wynn of Md.; William Jefferson of La.; Donald Payne of N.J.; Maxine Waters of Calif.; and CBC Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Mich.

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