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The Frontrunner October 5, 2004 Tuesday

The New York Times (10/5, Kirkpatrick) reports that the Bush campaign "is making a serious push for the allegiance of African-American clergy, while the Democrats are fighting back to motivate them to get their parishioners to the polls. Mr. Bush has appeared several times over the last few years in large predominantly black churches from Philadelphia to Dallas.

Timothy Goeglein, the White House liaison to conservatives and Christians, meets frequently with predominantly black congregations and religious groups, including the annual meeting of about 25,000 members of the Church of God in Christ, one of the largest and most theologically conservative black denominations, to the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York. ... Yesterday Mr. Kerry fought back, meeting with more than 50 black pastors in Philadelphia, telling them: "There have been faith-based efforts in America for years and years. There hasn't always been an effort to politicize it." The Times adds, "Part of the reason for the attention from both sides, strategists say, is black pastors' traditional role in turning out Democratic voters which the Kerry campaign is determined to step up and the Bush campaign would like to negate. But Republicans strategists say are also planting seeds that they hope will yield greater results in future elections, even if it does not make much difference this year. And both sides acknowledge that the endorsement of African-American clergy has a symbolic value among nonblack voters, in part because their status in the broader culture as the legacy of the civil rights movement."