I thought I was asking simple questions.
I was asking the staff of Sen. Dan Coats, who’s about to become Indiana’s senior United States senator, how many African-Americans work on his staff.
With the defeat of Sen. Richard Lugar, I was concerned that Indiana’s U.S. senators wouldn’t have anyone on their staffs that represented 10.1 percent of Indiana’s population.
The answer I received from Coats’ office can best be described as not only non-responsive, but ruthless and dismissive.
Nineteen years ago, when then Gov. Robert Orr appointed Coats to succeed Dan Quayle in the U.S. Senate, Coats wasn’t hesitant in having Black staffers. Quayle had the capable young Joe Watkins. Lugar had the incomparable John Hall. Before that Birch Bayh had the esteemed Joe Smith Sr. Later Evan Bayh had David Lewis, Doran Moreland in Indiana and others on his D.C. staff.
Coats continued that tradition as James Garrett served Coats in his first seven years in the Senate. During that first Senate stint, Coats was visible at Black community events, including Indiana Black Expo. As had Quayle, Lugar and both Bayhs.
Given Coats’ visibility during his first Senate stint, I’ve been puzzled at his current invisibility. When he was elected in November 2010, I assumed Coats would continue what he did from 1993 to 1999.
But for months I heard nothing from Sen. Coats. He was absent from the Expo and the Classic. No press releases from his office and no one seen in our Black community representing the senator.
Knowing that Sen. Lugar was going to lose his bid for a seventh term and that Coats would become our senior senator, I decided to find out if Coats had any African-American staffers.
I wrote Coats’ Communications Director Tara DiJulio and posed four simple questions.
How many African-Americans are employed in Sen. Coats’ office? Broken down by office (i.e. Washington, Indianapolis and the other Indiana field offices).
What are the names, titles and general duties of those African-American staffers?
Does any of Sen. Coats’ staff, regardless of ethnicity, have included among their responsibilities outreach and base touching with Indiana’s Black communities; especially here in the state’s largest city? Who are those staff members?
What African-American events/activities in the state has Sen. Coats visited during his time in the Senate?
Here, verbatim, is DiJulio’s reply.
“Senator Coats’ office is an equal opportunity employer and does not consider race, ethnicity, religion or gender in the hiring process. Respecting privacy concerns, our office does not release the race or ethnicity of individual employees.
“Senator Coats and his staff are dedicated to proactive outreach to all Hoosiers and meet with a variety of individuals, businesses, organizations and associations across the state.
“Senator Coats has an open door policy and welcomes all Hoosiers, Indiana groups and organizations to visit any of his offices in Indiana to discuss a particular issue or seek assistance with a federal agency.”
To my knowledge there is no federal law prohibiting members of Congress from releasing racial employment data for their staffers. I don’t think there’s a law that prohibits the release of that data for any federal agency.
IF Coats has Black staffers, why would he NOT want our Black community to know that?
Senate staffers aren’t domestics or janitors. They’re white collar professionals doing serious work and paid by the American people.
This means we have the right to ask and know who those staffers are; their job duties, salary and their race.
So any reasonable person reading DiJulio’s reply to me will quickly conclude that:
n Sen. Dan Coats employs NO African-American staff.
n Sen. Dan Coats hasn’t attended any event in any Indiana African-American community.
n Sen. Dan Coats has no one on his staff who gives a damn about Indiana’s 655,000 African-Americans.
If Sen. Coats is running his Senate office as a Black-free zone; then imagine how absent Blacks will be on Richard Mourdock’s staff if he’s elected in November.
Mourdock’s the guy who believes that bipartisanship means agree with him or else. Unlike Gov. Mitch Daniels, who’s employed Blacks on his staff and has been engaged and visible in Indiana Black communities these past eight years, Mourdock’s part of the new breed of Republican elected officials who pride themselves on openly ignoring Black folks.
In the last days of the Lugar/Mourdock race, African-American Republicans and others tried to do what they could to help save Richard Lugar from defeat. They did it out of respect for Lugar’s concern and visibility over the years.
Unfortunately and dangerously, Richard Mourdock and Dan Coats have no ties even to Black Republicans; much less our Black community. They are elected officials dedicated to representing Hoosiers who aren’t African-American!
What I’m hearing
in the streets
A couple of surprises in Tuesday’s primary, other than Sen. Lugar’s stunning loss. Carlos May barely won the GOP nomination to face Congressman André Carson in the 7th District Congress race in November. Among seven GOP candidates, May barely got 26.8 percent of the vote. A former Army Lt. Col. Catherine Ping was just 1,015 votes behind May’s total.
The softness of May’s support in the GOP primary, compared to the smashing 90 percent of the Democratic vote Carson received, makes May the underdog in the race.
The 5th District Congress race could’ve been a sleeper for Democrats if the more conservative David McIntosh had won. But former U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks upset McIntosh which makes the seat a bit harder for Democrat Scott Reske to win. Reske, a state representative from Anderson could’ve made inroads in Marion County and Hamilton County among African-Americans and independents. But Brooks, portrayed as a conservative in the primary, has the ability to reach out to African-Americans and others.
Reske’s challenge is motivating Black voters in the new 5th District, especially Blacks in Pike, Washington and Lawrence townships used to voting for André Carson, appeal to Hamilton County’s growing Black population. An area Democrats have ineptly tried to reach to in recent years.
See ‘ya next week.
You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.
