Iowa Caucus Results Put Pressure On Black Leaders For Endorsements

Before the Iowa caucus returns were in on Thursday, phones started ringing in the home of Fletcher Smith Jr., a black state legislator from Greenville, S.C. Like other black leaders, Mr. Smith finds himself being courted assiduously by the presidential campaigns of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. In New York, Rev. Al Sharpton said he was called all Thursday night by “either the candidate themselves or someone high up in the top three campaigns” suggesting he make up his mind. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who is active in Sen. Clinton's campaign, put in a call to another black politician whose candidate had just dropped out. Sen. Obama’s eight-point victory margin in overwhelmingly white Iowa changed the landscape of the presidential campaign, whittling away at doubts that a black candidate could be elected. In so doing, it has reinvigorated the scramble by Democratic campaigns to win over uncommitted black leaders, shore up allegiances and, in the case of Sen. Clinton, fend off the possibility of black supporters defecting to Sen. Obama's camp.

Advisers to Sen. Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards played down any effects from Sen. Obama’s victory. However, Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama, who supports Sen. Obama, called it a precarious time for the Clinton campaign. “For black elected officials who either stayed out of this race or have supported Senator Clinton, they’re in a very dicey position right now because their black constituents are about to move overwhelmingly toward Barack Obama.” Outright defections may be unlikely, he said, but he predicted some black Clinton supporters would become “magically unavailable when the Clinton campaign calls them.”

Asked whether he agreed with that assessment, South Carolina State Rep. Smith, who supported Sen. Joe Biden Jr. of Delaware until he ended his campaign after losing in Iowa, said, “I’m not going to turn my back on the Joe Bidens or the Hillary Clintons or the Joe Liebermans of this world simply because they’re white and we have a black candidate running.”

Black leaders, like black voters, have been split in their support for the candidates. The Congressional Black Caucus is divided roughly evenly between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton. A few members are backing Mr. Edwards and a few remain uncommitted, including the chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, as well as Representatives Maxine Waters of California and James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-ranking Democrat in the House leadership.

Families, too, are split: Rev. Jesse Jackson has endorsed Sen. Obama (though he has not been uncritical), and his son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., is a national co-chairman for the Obama campaign. However, the wife of Rev. Jackson is backing Sen. Clinton. Many younger black leaders like Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark are active in Sen. Obama’s campaign. But other black officials have endorsed Sen. Clinton and Mr. Edwards for reasons that such as what they view as Sen. Obama’s inexperience, doubts about his electability and, for some, longtime ties to Sen. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.

But Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said the historic nature of Sen. Obama’s candidacy meant that black leaders would have to ask themselves, "Where were we? And what do we tell our children?" Then he added, “What’s the answer? That ‘I had a longstanding political commitment and a deal that dates back to when a road was built for me down the street and I got some sidewalks?’"