When RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman spoke last week at Howard University, one of the nation’s most prestigious historically black colleges, it seemed like another step in the Republicans’ half-hearted campaign to woo African-American voters. As it turns out, Mehlman’s speech wasn’t even that.
The American Prospect’s Garance Franke-Ruta was on hand for the event and noticed a disturbing, Bush-like, attendance requirement. In fact, Howard students were excluded from Mehlman’s “outreach” efforts while local lobbyists, many of whom are white, were let in.
…Betsy Werronen, former chair of the D.C. Republican Party, and Margaret Pickering, from Ward 3 in far northwestern D.C., showed up at Howard in their neat, well-to-do suits. Deborah Thomas, former chair of the Prince George’s Community College Republicans, and Damien Clifton, a volunteer at RNC headquarters, trekked over to the campus for the evening. So did Grant Collins III, the chief of staff in the Office of Family Assistance at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and HHS policy specialist Rehana Mwarimu. Even Andrea Johnson, an engineer from the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association and lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, managed to make it over to Howard, where she stood in the back of the audience for Mehlman’ speech, her long blonde hair cascading down her shoulders.
According to those at the forum, there were “fewer than five” Howard University students in attendance. Indeed, there were more television cameras in the room than students from the school hosting the event.
Perhaps you’re thinking that the students simply chose to ignore Mehlman. Maybe they saw through his shallow outreach efforts and decided they had better things to do with their time.
That’s be a reasonable explanation, if it were true, but it’s not.
An RNC press release on the forum, distributed before Mehlman spoke, stated: “Chairman Mehlman … engaged students in a Q & A.”
Some undergrads who wanted to do just that, however, found their reception less than welcoming. When Erick Watson, a 25-year-old part-time student, declined to submit a written question at the door before hearing the speech, he says he and his friend Jason Ravin, a 23-year-old senior, were refused entry by RNC Outreach Communications Director Tara Wall and RNC African-American Coalition Director Deana Bass. “They had the security escort me out of the building,” Watson said. “They said I might raise my hand.”
So, Mehlman holds an event at a university, but doesn’t want to see students. Mehlman called the forum a “discussion,” but only wanted to discuss his positions in response to carefully-screened, softball questions.
Considering that Hehlman was the campaign manager for Bush-Cheney ’04, none of this should come as a surprise.