(SSP management note: The original diary title was a bit inflammatory and misleading — I edited it to tone it down a notch. I think we need to take a chill pill here for a moment.)
just breaking — this could really f-up our chances in NC…
from politico…
The husband of North Carolina Democratic Senate hopeful Kay Hagan is a lifelong member of an exclusive country club that didn’t admit its first black member until 1995, Hagan’s campaign disclosed Tuesday.
Charles “Chip” Hagan III, a businessman and former Democratic county leader, “supported opening up membership” at the 1,000-member Greensboro Country Club – but remained a member for years despite his opposition to the club’s de facto segregation policy, Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan told Politico.
Kay Hagan, who is counting on strong support among North Carolina’s black Democrats to unseat Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole, has never been a member of the club herself, Flanagan added.
“Chip supported broadening the membership to include African Americans and others,” she said. “Though it took longer than it should have, Greensboro County Club fully desegregated in 1995 and remains so today.”
Hagan, a state senator and niece of former Florida Sen. Lawton Chiles, leads Dole by one to three points in a race that is one of the most bitterly fought in the country.
Before Barack Obama, there hadn’t been an African American member since 1998/9. And that member – Carol Moseley Braun – in 1993, broke a streak of 14 years with no African Americans in the chamber. And I’m not even going to try to go through my old files and bookmarks and saved e-mails to remember exactly how long the streak without a single black member in the Senate was before that… I would say nigh a 100 years.
African Americans may not be fond of this news, but they will not cut off Hagan’s nose to spite Obama’s face, especially in a year where an African American might finally make it into the White House, and will need as many allies in the Senate he can get. So no need to harp on it… let this news die into the night, and when Hagan’s husband realizes his wife’s campaign dodged a major bullet that he fired at her himself, he will do something to make change in instiutions like that country club, and if he can’t, he will resign.
Not much at all. I’s be shocked if this story loses Hagen even 1,000 votes.
But your headline is extraordinarily disingenuous. Everything about it is misleading. It is not Hagan (it is her husband), and it has not been a whites-only country club for thirteen years.
Plus, if her campaign can be believed on the subject, her husband was one of the guys who GOT IT integrated in the first place.
How exactly is being married to a guy who had worked to get a country club desegretated 13 years ago really going to hurt anyone exactly?
Statement from Colleen Flanagan, Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate Communications Director:
“This is textbook Washington desperation. For Elizabeth Dole to be launching these kinds of attacks to cover up her own record of using and defending racially tinged tactics last election cycle as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee is despicable. And just months ago, Dole chose not to condemn the racist ad run against Democrats in this year’s gubernatorial primary, saying “I'm just not going to get into refereeing a third party political ad that has nothing to do with my race.” Those attacks have no place in this campaign, which should be about moving the country forward, not backward. Chip supported broadening the membership to include African Americans and others. Though it took longer than it should have, Greensboro County Club fully desegregated in 1995 and remains so today.”
Disclosure: I am Kay Hagan's Online Communications Director
http://www.kayhagan.com
of the intent of this post.