McCaskill is all about diversity in her Senate staff
By Chris King
Of the St. Louis American
“Up here in Washington, you see a blatant lack of diversity,” said Jerryl Christmas, an African-American lawyer and political player from St. Louis who works for U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill in Washington, D.C., as her grants and special projects director – a senior staff position.
“I have an opportunity to interact with senior staff from all over the country, and I can count on one hand the number of blacks on senators’ staffs. And I see only one other senior staff person, who works for Senator Obama, two doors down. I see him about once a week.”
The numbers bear Christmas out. A June 2006 article in DiversityInc magazine found that of the 4,100 U.S. Senate staffers across the country, only 6 percent were people of color.
It also found that people of color were virtually nonexistent in influential Washington, D.C.-based Senate aide positions. Although each senator generally employs at least 10 senior-level aides, DiversityInc found only 7.6 percent of the approximate 1,000 positions were held by people of color. Of that 7.6 percent, only 2.9 percent were black.
“The numbers in the Senate are unacceptable,” McCaskill said.
“I would consider myself a failure if I had those kinds of number in my office.”
The Congressional Black Caucus reacted to those numbers with a call for diversity, and the DiversityInc study needs to be updated after the sea-change in Congress that resulted from the mid-term elections, putting people like McCaskill in power. But if there has been a significant difference, Christmas hasn’t seen it.
“There is definitely a problem with diversity in the Senate, without a doubt,” Christmas said.
“That’s one of the reasons I accepted my appointment. It’s important to have diversity in these positions that impact legislation that affects the entire country.”
Christmas expressly does not include his boss in his condemnation of the Senate for its dearth of diversity.
“I see diversity in our office. It’s not lip service,” Christmas said.
“I see things put into action. It’s a simple fact here. It’s walking the walk, not just talking the talk.”
Michelle Sherrod, an African-American lawyer and accountant from St. Joseph who directs McCaskill’s St. Louis office, has the numbers to back him up.
“Our staff is 24 percent African-American across the board, 33 percent African-American at the executive level and 50 percent African-American in the St. Louis office,” said Sherrod, who also worked with McCaskill for eight years in the state auditor’s office, where she rose from tax rate analyst to deputy state auditor.
“She is making a difference in the St. Louis community,” Mattie Moore said of McCaskill. Deputy director of the St. Louis office, Moore is an African-American committeewoman (2nd Ward) and former vice chair of the state party.
“Never has a person in her position had 50 percent diversity in her local office,” Moore said of McCaskill.
Committed to networking
“There is always a lot of talk of affirmative action. You just need to be committed to networking,” McCaskill told the American.
This is especially crucial because, in a competitive marketplace, diversity is a two-way street. An executive or elected official must value diversity enough to recruit African Americans – and also must be aggressive enough and have enough to offer qualified blacks to lure them away from other offers.
“Highly qualified African-American candidates are in demand,” McCaskill said.
“You can’t wait for them to come to you – somebody else will grab them. You’ve got to find them.”
As state auditor, McCaskill opened regional offices in St. Louis and Kansas City, she said, in part because it would be “a little easier” to diversify her staff if every African-American hire did not need to relocate to Jefferson City. As a senator, she said, it’s “even easier, because you get to hire all over the state,” but staffing her Washington, D.C. office diversely with the best and brightest remains a challenge.
“There are so many opportunities in D.C., and the government side is not the most lucrative side,” McCaskill said.
“A lot of young African-American graduates are recruited to law firms and lobbying firms, not to the government side.”
That is where the constant recruiting comes in. McCaskill said she always is telling African-American leaders, “Keep me in mind if you know young, talented people who are interested in public service.” She said she has a good rapport with the Mound City Bar Association, St. Louis’ trade group for black lawyers, and as state auditor sent African Americans on her staff to accounting school so they could advance in her office.
Indeed, McCaskill’s track record shows a focus on diversity that dates from before it became the buzzword of today. From 1993 to 1998 she served as Jackson County prosecutor, the first woman to hold that position. She hired an African-American, Jim Nunnelly, to direct a sales tax-funded anti-drug program, the second-highest-paid position on her executive staff.
McCaskill also can proudly point to two African-American judges on the Kansas City bench, Judge Gregory B. Gillis and Judge Brian Wimes, whom she recruited as interns when running the prosecutor’s office.
She had more work to do in diversity when she was elected as state auditor in 1999. Sherrod confirmed McCaskill’s account that there was “not one person of color in the office, not even answering the phones” when McCaskill took charge. Her diversity effort eventually landed Sherrod in the number two position on staff, where she excelled sufficiently to follow McCaskill into her executive senatorial staff.
“And it was hard work to get her,” McCaskill said.
Bob Burns, a white veteran of Democratic politics from Affton, is one of the field representatives in the St. Louis office who report to Sherrod.
“Michelle looks at your qualifications first. But, secondly, you can’t have all of any one thing. It’s a diverse population, not only in St. Louis but the whole state,” Burns said.
“Claire is very aware of that. It’s the way she ran the auditor’s office. It’s one of the reasons that I wanted to work for Claire, her emphasis on diversity. I wanted the ability to work with all members of the population.”
Ben Dyer is a young, white worker from the McCaskill campaign who now reports to Sherrod as a caseworker in the St. Louis office, mainly helping constituents navigate federal agencies.
“I worked on the Claire campaign, so now I see similar faces, some of the same faces,” Dyer said.
“I like the way Claire approaches diversity. I’ve come to expect that. I wasn’t surprised at all.”
