The Associated Press reports Senator John Kerry dismisses Idea that his support for Iowa and New Hampshire's prominent roles in the presidential nomination process means he thinks only the votes of white people count.
Yesterday, I posted about Kerry's opposition to a DNC advisory commission's plan to place one or two caucuses from more ethnically, racially and economically diverse states between Iowa’s caucus and New Hampshire's primary.
A DNC advisory commission recommended that the additional early states be chosen by the rules committee based on "racial and ethnic diversity; regional diversity; and economic diversity including union density." The commission found that Iowa and New Hampshire "are not fully reflective of the Democratic electorate or the national electorate generally," and, specifically, "do not represent the racial and ethnic diversity of the party or the nation."
On ABC's "This Week," Kerry rejected the opinion of a Democratic strategist who said Kerry's supporting the status quo was "saying only white people's votes count in those early states:"
"That's so much bunk," Kerry responded. "I don't know how to describe that comment in any other way than to say that that's absolutely ridiculous. The converse of that is to suggest that the people in New Hampshire and Iowa are insensitive to those issues and don't care about them."
Getting bashed for failing to adequately adress minority concerns is a continuing problem for Kerry. During his 2004 run the Kerry campaign's diversity was challenged. The Associated Press reported that some black officials and independent analysts were concerned that there is a lack of minority representation in the Kerry campaign, which threatened to weaken enthusiasm among black and Hispanic voters. At the time Kerry's inner circle - the dozen or so advisers who participated in the campaign's most important decisions - was mostly white.
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