Candidates Go to Church in Search of Votes

Kerman Maddox stood before the congregation of Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church in South Los Angeles on Sunday morning and spoke of police brutality, gang violence and racial discrimination.

It is time for new leadership, said Maddox, a candidate for the 8th District City Council seat.

“I’d like you to pray for me,” he said. “But most importantly, I’d like you to vote for me.”

On the last Sunday before Angelenos cast their votes in eight City Council races, candidates for districts that encompass sections of the city’s South Side took their campaign messages to the community’s churches for the last time.

It was the natural place to wind up, said many candidates who have made weekly visits to churches a part of their campaign itineraries.

“The church has always been at the forefront of social, civic and political change in our community and I don’t see that role changing in these City Council elections,” Maddox said.

He added that the church may play a critical role in the 8th District race, in which, he believes, none of the nine candidates has a significant name-recognition advantage in Tuesday’s election.

“The church community could very well be the swing vote in whether a candidate makes a runoff or not,” Maddox said.

Black churches have been a focal point for many of the candidates running in the 6th, 8th and 9th districts, which encompass neighborhoods ranging from the middle-class Crenshaw-Baldwin Hills area to poorer enclaves throughout South and South-Central Los Angeles.

From pulpit to pulpit, the faces of the candidates changed Sunday. But their messages were the same:

Vote for me.

Roderick Wright, another 8th District candidate, and Tavis Smiley, who is trying to unseat Ruth Galanter in the 6th District, followed Maddox at Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist.

Other candidates planned to visit churches throughout the community and attended a “get-out-the-vote” concert and rally at the Greater Bethany Community Church on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday’s last-minute stumping wound up months of campaigning in which candidates boasted of endorsements from well-known ministers and various churches opened their doors to the council hopefuls, allowing them a few minutes to address their congregations and, in some cases acting as hosts to full-scale candidate forums.

In addition, many of the clergy wrote letters, made personal donations and endorsed their favorite candidates.

Several candidates said support by church leaders not only gives them access to large groups of potential voters, but communicates a link between them and one of the most respected and entrenched institutions in the black community--a connection that can translate into votes. Some said an endorsement by a well-respected minister can even be more beneficial at the polls than the backing of a well-known politician.

“Ministers are not just seen as preachers on Sunday morning. They are community leaders,” said Smiley, adding that outside of personalized mailings, the church has provided his greatest pool of support. “To the extent you can get a respected ecumenical leader to endorse your campaign, that can go a very long way.”

However, another 8th District candidate, Billy Mills, said he is unsure how important such endorsements will be. “The primary candidates all have some ministerial support so, at a minimum, you’ll see some diffusion of this traditional support.”

Mills--the son of the former councilman and current Superior Court judge--added that unlike a politician, one minister’s endorsement may have no influence over another church’s congregation. He added that the existence of political clubs as well as the opening up of institutions formerly closed to African-Americans have provided alternative centers of political activity. Nevertheless, he too has been making the rounds of community churches.

“You do it because it’s the primary vehicle to reach people who participate in the voting process,” Mills said.

The community’s churches have traditionally been a center of political activity and a lightning rod for change. African-Americans often met in the church to organize as well as seek support and solace during the days of the civil rights movement. And out of the black church came some of America’s most well-known activists--including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“Politics is not just about getting people elected,” said the Rev. James Lawson, who supports Mark Ridley-Thomas for the 8th District council seat. “It’s about getting people in office who can use their experience to help us live up to some of the highest aspirations of the land.

“I think the African-American slavery tradition produced many songs about the promised land,” he said. “You have to work in the political arena to try and get there.”