Connerly warns GOP against pandering to blacks, praises faith-based tactics

Ward Connerly, the libertarian California businessman who spearheaded the ballot initiative that banned affirmation action programs in Michigan last year, told a gathering of Michigan Republicans not to misrepresent their values to blacks.

Speaking at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island over the weekend Connerly said that the state Republican Party made a mistake when it came out against Proposal 2, the affirmative action ban. 

“Republicans were tacitly saying that their values had changed, ” Connerly said, “and people can see through that.”

(Photo: Ward Connerly was one of the few people of color to attend the republican Mackinac Leadership Conference over the weekend.)

Continued -Connerly dubbed affirmative action programs, “race based preference programs,” and said that Republican values call for a focus on personal responsibility, not government programs.

In an interview with the Michigan Messenger, Connerly said that the Republican Party is not going to go after, “the typical Detroiter,” but could, possibly, “attract the suburban black who is just as concerned about jobs and education and how much money is left in their paycheck after taxes.”

“The Republican Party is losing voters because it is failing to connect with the rank and file people. This will change if they connect with those people and get out of the war.”

Connerly praised George W. Bush’s approach to connecting with black voters, and called Bush’s  faith-based initiatives, “a brilliant concept.”

Bush would not meet with the [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People], Connerly said, “the faith-based initiative was a political move to go around the black establishment rather than dealing with their brokers like the Dems do.”

The question of whether the government should be passing out money to faith-based groups is another issue, he said.

Michigan Republicans seem aware of the power of connections to black congregations.

Keith Butler, pastor of the 22,000-member Word of Faith International Christian Center in suburban Detroit, is poised to represent state Republicans as National Committeeman. Butler, a former Detroit city councilman and high-profile Republican activist, is also a recipient of Bush administration faith-based initiative money which he said has allowed him to build a shelter for troubled single women. Butler has satellite churches in several states and his sermons are distributed via web, TV, and through direct sales.

“I can bring an infusion of fresh blood to the critical 2008 election, ” Butler said at a picnic sponsored by Attorney General Mike Cox over the weekend.

“The Republican Party needs someone who understands everyday people.”

Butler said that he can’t tell his congregation what to do when it comes to politics. But guidelines prepared by the religious legal group, the Alliance Defense Fund, and circulated at the Mackinac conference by Citizens for Traditional Values, illustrate how closely the Party is studying command of the pulpit as a political asset.

The ADF advised that churches can host candidates, prepare voter guides, place ads in church newsletters and rent church lists to candidates. Churches can’t distribute a candidate’s literature inside the church, but can allow others to distribute it in their parking lot. According to the ADF, pastors, when acting as individuals, are virtually unrestricted in their political activities.