Under fire for a series of questions about his management of the Republican National Committee, chairman Michael Steele has said he thinks he’s held to a higher standard as an African-American. “The honest answer is, ‘yes,’” Steele told ABC’s Good Morning America. “It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play, and that’s just the reality of it. But you take that as a part of the nature of it.”
But black Republican candidates for Congress this year, recruited in part through Steele’s outreach efforts, don’t see it that way.
“Like it or not, with great power comes great responsibility,” Phillip said. “It’s just how it is. You might have been 3000 miles from that bondage club, but if it happens under your watch you will get blamed for it.”
Princella Smith, 26, is running for an open seat in Arkansas’ 1st District—-one of some 32 black Republicans campaigning for Congress this fall. Before mounting her House bid, she worked for Steele himself, as e-campaign director for his 2006 race for a Senate seat in Maryland. Smith believes that Steele will survive his latest ordeal—triggered when reports surfaced that the RNC on his watch ran up a big bar tab hosting a night out for young GOP donors at a West Hollywood strip club (Steele was not personally involved in the incident, which prompted the RNC’s chief of staff to resign on Monday).
But Smith also says she doesn’t think racism has much to do with why Steele’s on the hot seat. “I think the Republican Party really values accountability,” Smith said. “I don’t think that it’s ‘the black guy is heading up that one so we'll pounce on him harder.’ I think at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, it’s whether you’re being effective and are helping us win seats.”
Smith says she “can understand where Michael Steele is coming from” in that minority candidates in both parties have sometimes faced significant challenges. But she maintains that her race has primarily been a positive in her campaign.
“Having a sitting black president, having the African American electorate go 90% or more Democrat, does draw more attention to us,” she said. “It’s not opportunism....it’s just that this environment has presented a more favorable chance [for candidates], it helps add to that ‘Oh my gosh, this is a different kind of candidate’ factor.”
Les Phillip, a retired Navy officer running for an open seat in Alabama’s 5th District, said even if Steele was correct to claim he was held to higher standard, it has little bearing on his latest scandal.
“It’s probably a true statement, but you know that going into it, it’s just the way it is in the world,” he said. Phillip said race was not a factor in Steele’s latest woes, likening the situation to his own service in the Navy—where ship captains are responsible for mistakes by even the lowliest crewmen.
“Like it or not, with great power comes great responsibility,” Phillip said. “It’s just how it is. You might have been 3000 miles from that bondage club, but if it happens under your watch you will get blamed for it.”
Steele earned one of his harshest rebukes this week from former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell, who is African American and ran unsuccessfully for Steele’s RNC position last year. In an interview with ABC News, he dismissed Steele’s higher standards claim as “nonsense” and placed the blame squarely at the RNC chairman’s feet.
"There is a pattern of missteps, miscues, and misstatements, and as a consequence we now can't fall back on the issue of race," he said.
But Dr. Timothy Johnson, founder of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, who recently organized a summit for dozens of black Republicans running for office, said he sees support for Steele’s point in the candidates’ experiences.
“I think in some instances we are given higher standards,” Johnson told the Daily Beast. “Nothing is easy. If you look at the number of blacks getting involved in races this year, it’s the first time it’s happened on this scale, and you have to ask, ‘If we were the antislavery party in 1854, why did it take so long?’”
Johnson said minority politicians face unique challenges in both parties; they’re either accused of catering solely to their own ethnic community, he maintains, or bending over backwards to curry favor with white voters.
here did seem to be consensus among the candidates interviewed that Steele’s problems won’t have much bearing on their campaigns.
“I certainly don’t think voters will sit up thinking ‘Ok, Michael Steele was black and you’re black....’” Smith said. “I think every voter in this country wants change and whatever candidate can convince them on that issue will win.”
Benjamin Sarlin is Washington correspondent for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
