Democrats playing the Race Card on Themselves

The Detroit News:Rep. Clarke will not engage in 14th District debates after 'race-baiting' incident

With questions about his race swirling, U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, on Friday said he won't participate in primary debates, citing "race-baiting" by opponents in the 14th Congressional District race. Ron Scott, a media consultant for Clarke, said the decision arose not from comments made during an earlier debate but documents recently circulated that question whether Clarke is and his mother was black. The campaign has been made aware of robocalls and emails regarding his race, said Scott, who calls the issue "sickening."

Yep, apparently some Democrat opponents of Clarke are accusing him of not being black enough to represent this majority-minority district.

One wonders who is black enough to benefit by such calls - the other contenders are Gary Peters, who was representing this district area before we were absorbed into the Detroit 14th district, and Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence, former state Rep. Mary Waters and retired Detroit magistrate Bob Costello. Now who might benefit from such an accusation?

Waters believes Clarke is using the questions about his race as an excuse not to participate in debates.

She believes Clarke is "deceptive" byplaying up his Asian roots elsewhereand then "preaching" to a black audience in Detroit. She said she's the only black candidate from Detroit.

Waters and Lawrence are black, Peters and Costello are not.

This is rather annoying but par for the Democrat course. Especially so considering Hansen Clarke is to all appearances at least an honest and uncorrupt Democrat. Far more so than the rep he defeated - U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick for the 13th.

However, he's now battling it out with Gary Peters of what was my 9th district, who I've also found rather honest and uncorrupted. But this year we would have had a shot at a Republican winning had we not been redrawn into this new Detroit district.

Great, I'm now stuck in this newly gerrymandered 14th district, formed from the prior 9th, 13th and 14th and drawn so that a majority-minority district in Detroit that was losing its population due to decades of Democrat corruption and mismanagement is gerrymandered enough to remain a Detroit majority-minority district.

Good luck with a Republican getting elected in this district now.

Just when this area has figured that Democrats are not the way to go, we're pushed into a district where we will be marginalized by Detroit forever or at least until we get redistricted out of this Detroit district. We will also get to se the race card in its full deployment, now and forever.

The HuffPo has an interesting graphic showing the redistricting. The before and after for the 14th is abominable, but required under the Voting Rights Act to ensure a minority district can never disappear, demographics be damned. It also locks in a safe Democrat seat.

Damn.