Erik Fleming and the Racial Tensions Among State Dems
Writing on his personal blog, former State Rep. Erik Fleming (D-Jackson) touches on the hiring of Ike Brown and the firing of Sam Hall (h/t Y’all Politics).
He made a couple of points that I had suspicion about that we now know are true, mainly along the lines of race. The first is that Hall received the support from all of the white members of the Executive Committee. The black vote was split between interim director Rosalind Rawls and Chris Smith, who coordinated Travis Childers congressional campaign. Both Rawls and Smith are black.
So this is clearly a racial issue. Blacks, who make up a majority of the Democrat Party, feel they should be in control of it. And while the black vote makes for an extremely strong base, the inability to win white votes is the reason Republicans hold both Senate seats and most statewide offices.
Fleming, himself, had less than kind words for Hall, similar to what Executive Committee member Willie Griffin of Cleveland told the Clarion-Ledger.
Fleming even touched on the racial tensions of the state Democrats from 44 years ago, stated they are now re-emerging. Interestingly, they are re-emerging in reverse of 1964. You have Ike Brown discriminating against white voters and black committee members objecting to a white leader.
