Capitol Fax on Cedra Crenshaw

In today's post entitled: Time to tone it down

Rich Miller has a problem with the racial rhetoric. Crenshaw was the Republican candidate for state senate in the 43rd Senate District until she was knocked off the ballot in a partisan electoral board vote. So far Crenshaw has framed this story in terms of the Chicago Democratic machine afraid of her because she's a conservative Black mother.

Miller says that Crenshaw has made some over the top statements such as claiming that Chicago Democrats are being denied the right to vote. He corrects that notion by saying that voters are in fact being denied a choice. He also notes that another independent challenger was removed from the ballot thanks to an objection by Crenshaw herself.

You know, I just have to say this woman has some fire. Yeah this district is predominantly Democrat, but the way she's fighting, I think she shouldn't be underestimated if she was on the ballot. I mean Miller notes not only the local media attention she has received, but national as well. I mean she is aligned with the tea party movement.

At that there are charges that the tea party movement is racist for rather simple reasons even if not based upon even more solid evidence. I will refer you to this article, "Is the Tea Party Racist?" (via Instapundit), if you want to know what I mean.

Anyway it is also noted by Miller that in being eager to eliminate any possible opponents all the Democrats did was open themselves up to a PR nightmare. Like he said already this story is already gaining traction not only locally but nationally. I did post an ad by Crenshaw really trying to rally support for her cause earlier this week.

Miller notes that:

The Republicans are pretty sure they’ll win this on appeal. They may be right, but the red-hot racial rhetoric and the mindless Tribune rants really need to be toned down in the meantime. The Democrats didn’t challenge Crenshaw’s petitions because she was black, they challenged the petitions because she’s a Republican. Period.

You know in the interest of never being a fan of the race card I will say that Miller is correct this was nothing more than a partisan challenge. I do believe however that there are those who don't like the idea of a Black conservative, but yeah this can be seen as nothing more than a partisan challenge. The incumbent didn't want any competition even if this competition only managed between 1% or 10% of the vote.

At the same time the damage is done thanks to the loudness of Crenshaw's protests.