The political landscape of America is changing rapidly. Although not as evident on the national level, African American, Latino, Asian and Native American office holders are becoming more visible at the local and state levels of government, such as serving as school board members, county commissioners, city council members, and state-wide officials.
A new groundbreaking, nationwide study is underway to provide an in-depth look at elected officials of color. Called the Gender & Multicultural Leadership (GMCL) Project, its activities include a national database of over 10,000 public officials in federal and selected state and local offices that was constructed from various directories. A new website (www.gmcl.org) has been created to educate the public.
Drawing from the nationwide database, a survey was conducted of a sample of 1,354 in order to get a closer look at the distribution, demographics, and attitudes of minorities holding public office. The interviews probed deeply, taking on average 44 minutes, and comprising 195 questions. Normally, interviews in surveys nowadays last 20 to 30 minutes.
Some selected findings were discussed by a panel of the four principal investigators at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Nov 7, in Washington, D.C.
"The GMCL survey is, to date, the nation's most comprehensive multiracial, multi-office national survey of Black, Latino, Asian and American Indian elected officials holding positions at state and local levels," touted Christine Marie Sierra, Political Science Professor at the University of New Mexico.
Hear are some of the findings reported at the Wilson Center:
• Black elected officials tend to be concentrated in the South, but Blacks are more dispersed in the country than the other minority groups. Latinos are concentrated in the Southwest, with some pockets in the Northeast and the Southeast (Florida). 75% of Asians and Pacific Islanders are concentrated in only two states: Hawaii and California.
• 80% of male elected officials of color are married, compared to 53% of women.
• Eight in ten agreed with the statement, "The US should bring its troops home from Iraq as soon as possible." According to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, 53% of the American people agreed with the statement in February.
• More than four times as many teachers who are elected officials strongly oppose the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) than those who strongly favor it. The survey also revealed strong opposition to NCLB among school board members (59%).
• About 8 out of 10 of the office holders are Democrat. The incidence of Democratic partisanship is highest among Blacks (82%) and least among Asian office holders (56%).
• 87% of Asian elected officials have a college degree or higher compared to 63% of Black, and 46% of Latino officials.
The self-perception of the elected officials is not as liberal as one might expect based on party affiliation, explained Carol Hardy-Fanta, Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts (Boston). Nearly one third (32%) say they are "liberal," about another third (34%) say they are "middle of the road," nearly a third (29%) saying they are "conservative," with 5% 'other.'
"Even though a majority of Latino public officials did not support the idea of providing voting rights in school board elections to non-citizen legal immigrants with children in the public schools, a near majority did," commented Dr. Hardy-Fanta. This result holds across the other groups as well.
With the highly restrictive attitudes towards illegal immigrants that has lately become quite pervasive in the U.S., this support for voter participation is an important phenomena taking place in the country, noted Dr. Hardy-Fanta. Normally, in America, we tend to say voting rights only come with citizenship. But this truism may be on its way out.
Pathway to Elected Office
One of the questions that was discussed a great deal by the panel of principal investigators, was how elected officials become involved in politics. The paths taken were multiple. The two leading reasons given were "community/neighborhood" followed by PTA/PTO. Civil rights was also frequently mentioned, especially from the Black elected officials where it was #2 most often mentioned.
Interestingly, the survey's elected officials received little encouragement to run from family and others. Only 16% said they received such encouragement.
Most of the time, it is some particular issue that instigates the person to do something, or else it's a desire "to do service to the community, to give something back," said Dr. Hardy-Fanta, who has published two books on Latino politics.
Two examples of the reason why the individual ran for office were quoted at the panel discussion to illustrate typical motives uncovered. "There was no toilet in the park," said a Latino mayor of California. "To help small businesses," said an Asian state senator from Hawaii.
Only 2% could be said to be motivated by personal ambition and might mention the desire to run for higher office.
Two local minority elected officials from Maryland were invited to this symposium to share their personal experiences that led them to take the step of running for public office. Valerie Ervin, the first and only African American woman to serve on the Montgomery County Council, began her career as a union organizer. Ms. Ervin was the second African American female to serve on the Montgomery County Board of Education.
Unlike your typical elected official, Ms. Ervin does not see herself as representing the majority, but instead as a voice for the "Americans starving, and the many women workers who cannot read or write."
Ms. Ervin complained that it is a struggle for her with a family to survive because "while you are working a full-time job, but you are paid on a part-time basis." The survey found that about 30% receive no pay and the majority of the rest receive less than $10,000 as compensation.
Nancy Navarro now serves as president of the Board of Education in District 5. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, she first came to the U.S. when she was 10 years old, her family left after two years, and she returned alone at the age of 17 to go to college. She married a man, originally from Haiti, who was a U.S. citizen. As a Latino mother with Afro-Latin children, she developed her own perspective and became involved in school issues of school readiness and family child care. She found herself getting involved in fund raising when her friend Valerie Ervin was running for the school board.
Navarro was appointed and later elected in 2006 to the school board where she now serves as president. "We do need to articulate issues and offer perspectives that are more and more reflective of the majority of our population…We need leadership that reflects the community," explained Navarro on why she feels strongly about the need to serve.
Currently, of the 137,000 students in the public schools in Montgomery County, 59% are children of color—Asian, Black, and Latino, said Navarro. "So, it is a majority Minority school system that wasn't that way 15 years ago," said Navarro.
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