Steele Drawing Black Voters in Maryland

Despite the best efforts of the Democrats and Chuckie Schumer's Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, black Republican Michael Steele remains a force in the Maryland Senate race and is threatening the black voter base that the Dems have long taken for granted:

An internal document prepared by a top Democratic strategist warns that a majority of African American voters in Maryland are open to supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele and advises the party not to wait to "knock Steele down."

The 37-page report says a sizable segment of likely black voters -- as much as 44 percent -- would readily abandon their historic Democratic allegiances "after hearing Steele's messaging."

"Governor Ehrlich and [Lt. Gov.] Michael Steele have a clear ability to break through the Democratic stronghold among African American voters in Maryland," says the March 27 report by Cornell Belcher, polling consultant for the Democratic National Committee, which bases its findings on a survey of 489 black voters in Maryland conducted last month.

The report, given to The Washington Post this week, drills into a topic that has emerged as a key focus of this year's U.S. Senate contest in Maryland: race.

In 2002, Steele became the first African American elected to statewide office in Maryland, and he has designed his Senate campaign to cut into the black support that has traditionally flocked to Democrats.

I've documented previous attacks on Steele here, here, and here, and yet he continues to do well in the Senate race. Could it be that the racist attacks on him have backfired in the black community? Or could it be that Mr. Steele is making a lot of sense, and some of his fellow citizens are starting to pay attention. Maybe the light is finally coming on for some members of the black community that despite the years of promises, the Dems have failed to deliver.

Whatever the reason, this poll is good news for the GOP campaign in Maryland, though we can now expect increasingly vicious attacks against Mr. Steele.