Democrats must return to roots

Watch your base: That's one of the most important lessons for the Democratic Party after its drubbing on Election Day. In particular, Democrats failed to turn out a key segment of their base, black voters.

Black voters are the most loyal segment of the party. Ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt changed the face of the party, blacks have voted Democrat at astounding rates, even though there is evidence that they are getting less and less in return.

While Hispanics, women, older voters, union members and other Democratic constituencies are increasingly splitting their votes between the ''D's'' and the ''R's'', blacks continue to favor the Democrats in -a given race by 10 to 1. In 2000, blacks voted for Al Gore against George W. Bush 90 percent to 8 percent.

In close races, when black voters turn out in high numbers, Democrats generally win. When they stay home, Democrats often lose.

Therefore, the Democratic National Committee's failure to mount an effective get-out-the-vote effort is astounding. Its failure to articulate a compelling message before the elections is embarrassing.

In Florida last week, Gov. Jeb Bush got 6 percent of the black vote, his lowest share since his losing run for the statehouse in 1994, yet he won. But for Bill McBride, 94 percent of the black vote was almost meaningless when just 43 percent of eligible black voters went to the polls.

Of course, low black turnout alone didn't kill McBride's candidacy. His lackluster campaign anesthetized the entire Democratic base.

But if McBride couldn't get black voters to the polls to take down a governor they loathe, then his chances of energizing other parts of the Democratic electorate were slim and none. McBride mistakenly ceded the black vote to a more-popular candidate, Janet Reno. And while Reno stumped for McBride like crazy, his campaign realized late in the game that it badly needed record turnout among blacks -- not just Reno's endorsement.

McBride tried, albeit tardily, bringing in Jesse Jackson, calling in radio host Tom Joyner and even bringing in the ''first black president'' himself, Bill Clinton at the 11th hour.

But black voters saw through a man who had wasted no time declaring victory over Reno in the disastrous September primary, seemingly unconcerned about those who had been disfranchised by a chaotic voting process.

But 11th-hour appeals aren't enough, especially when a candidate hasn't been to the neighborhood before.

In Georgia, black voters were barraged in the closing weeks of the campaign with radio appeals to turn out at the polls and send a message to the politicians that they would no longer be taken for granted. Trouble is, the appeals were coming from Republicans, and those being accused of throwing black voters under the bus were Democrats.

But even as blacks continue to show singular loyalty to the Democratic Party, they make up an increasingly scant share of the candidates offered for statewide office. The number of black candidates shrank from 25 in 1998 to just 11 in 2000, three of whom were Republicans.

The only two high-profile black candidates for office in 2002, Ron Kirk in Texas and Carl McCall in New York, came up losers.

It's simple: Democrats have held black voters virtual hostages for so long that they have forgotten that you can't get something for nothing forever.

Black voters no longer see the point of turning out in large numbers to support candidates who initially ignore them, belatedly woo them and, ultimately, let them down.

Why support a party that can't manage to field or nominate more than a handful of blacks for higher office, that pays scant attention to blacks' concerns except when it's in trouble, that sabotages, undermines and ditches the candidates blacks prefer.

Bill Clinton did great things for blacks, delivering record wealth, government positions and homeownership. But he can't be black folks' only friend forever. His party has to start delivering, too.

Democrats had better rethink their relationship with the black community; otherwise the separation that began on Nov. 5 could turn into a divorce.

JOY-ANN LOMENA REID

Pembroke Pines