Politics is like show business in so many ways. In both arenas, what the creative players are working on and what the general public is consuming are often a year or more out of synch. Just like movie audiences are lining up to see The Last King of Scotland while Forrest Whittaker long ago moved on to other projects, voters are preparing for an election on November 7 while, on the back channel, political players are deep into plotting for 2007, 2008 and beyond.
In Missouri, the 5th Senatorial District is already a major source of jockeying and speculation. Those who care to see blacks in the city of St. Louis represented in the state Senate are hoping and plotting to avoid a replay of the 4th Senatorial District, where a compelling white candidate defeated not one, not two, but three African-American candidates.
There is evidence that we are headed that way again.
It will take more than the EYE to dissuade state Rep. Rodney Hubbard from running for the seat to be vacated by state Sen. Maida Coleman. He dropped by the American last week and announced, flatly, “I’m running.” It was pointed out to Hubbard – who has grass roots support, in large part a legacy from his father – that he fared dismally on the Progressive Vote Coalition’s latest legislative report card. Hubbard voted progressive only 44 percent of the time. The other two term-limited black state representatives with their eyes on the state Senate, Robin Wright Jones and Maida Coleman, scored a cool 100 percent. Even Tom Villa, the white South Sider who would win the race if more than one black candidate files – or walk away from it, if pressured by white Democrats interested in party loyalty – scored 90 percent by Pro Vote’s count.
“I’m not a progressive,” Hubbard said, when confronted by these results.
John Hickey of Pro Vote couldn’t agree more. “Hubbard isn’t only bad on school vouchers,” Hickey said. “He’s bad on labor, he crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans on getting rid of limits to campaign contributions. He voted conservative on five key issues.”
Hubbard, apparently not liking the connotations of not being “progressive,” corrected himself. He said, “I am progressive. I’m not liberal.”
In 2005, Hubbard’s Pro Vote legislative score was low for a black legislator, but respectable at 80 percent. In one year, Hubbard dropped from 80 percent to 44 percent, while state Rep. Ted Hoskins dropped from 91 percent to 67 percent.
Hoskins also voted with the Republicans to remove the restrictions on campaign contributions, a move widely felt to favor the GOP.
This looks to some like a slide into stealth Republicanism, with the aim of amassing a campaign war chest from conservative interest groups. And that sounds very bad, in terms of policy and representation, for the black community – even if Hubbard is off the block and will take care of his neighborhood every chance he gets.
“I’m one black legislator who can call the governor and get things done,” Hubbard told us.
Problem is, that phone rings both ways. Hubbard’s voting record makes it clear that Republicans feel they can also call him and “get things done.”
The good and the lazy
But Hubbard is determined to run.
“Bad as Rodney is,” one longtime observer of local politics said, “at least he’s a politician. He’ll knows the game, and he’ll work it. As good as Robin and Connie are, they aren’t politicians. They’re too lazy to build a base.”
This player suggested that progressive black Democrats may be faced with backing the more electable, but less attractive black candidate, and then pressuring him into voting better.
The EYE looks at Hubbard’s sinking credential as a progressive, from 80 percent to 44 percent in one short year, and sighs. Ain’t politics fun?