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EBONY: "Artur Davis is the Sheree Whitfield of the Republican Party"

PHOTO: GETTY

Artur Davis has become the Sheree Whitfield of the Republican Party. He's more likely to win the Player Hater's Ball than a Senate seat as a Republican. Our latest for EBONY: "Hater Player: Artur Davis, GOP Black Gold"

Giving up his gubernetorial dreams, he has moved to Virgina and is thought to be interested in running for Congress "or even the Senate", according to many reports. Davis has also embraced voter suppression laws as his signature issue. Republican-controlled legislatures from coast to coast—most notably in Florida, Texas and Wisconsin—have attempted to pass these laws to suppress voter turnout among Blacks, Latinos and youth. "Giddy at their unexpected good fortune, Republicans awarded Davis a prime speaking slot at the Republican convention," noted BusinessWeek.

Just like Sheree Whitfield thought her diva-like behavior would never be challenged—"Who’s gonna check me, boo?"—the former congressman boasted Tuesday night about voting against the best interests of his former congressional district. "We don't need a party that has led while poverty and hunger rose to record levels to give us lectures about suffering," said Davis to applause.

It takes a certain originality for a Black man to stand before an audience of 50,000 mostly White Republicans and lecture Democrats on “poverty and hunger.” It was the Republican Party that gutted food stamps and child nutrition policy—remember when the Reagan Administration wanted to classify ketchup as a "vegetable" in school lunches? Davis owed his political career to the Voting Rights Act—and it takes even more nerve for him to make suppressing voting rights his signature issue.

Thanks so much for all the great feedback on Twitter and Facebook. Read the article HERE.

Also: Check out our articles earlier this week at EBONY on the leadership change in Ethiopia and Mitt Romney's "joke".

Anti-Gay Artur Davis Loses Bid to Become Alabama's 1st Black Gov

Rep. Artur Davis has lost his bid to become the first black elected governor in Alabama. The anti-gay conservative Birmingham Democrat—who boasts an abysmal 45 percent Human Rights Campaign score—largely ignored black voters and catered toward Republicans. That strategy failed with Democratic primary voters—about half of whom are black—and Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks "stomped Davis" with more than 60 percent of the vote,  CNN reports.

Had the four-term congressman come out on top, he could have become Alabama's first black governor and only the third elected black governor in United States history. The historical implications of a Davis victory were not lost on the Deep South. A black man could have taken the oath of office near where Gov. George Wallace declared "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" in his 1963 inaugural address and where Jefferson Davis took the oath of office as president of the Confederate States of America in 1861. Davis, much to the chagrin of black political leaders, had no interest in focusing on the symbolism.

But it wasn't just the clout of the black establishment that made some black voters question Davis. "Artur Davis did do something to make black people not want to vote for him, and that is his 'no' vote for health care reform. Even before the black political groups stepped in the picture and refused to endorse him, he had already established a negative relationship with some of the black voters," said Angela Lewis, an associate professor of black political behavior at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.

Davis was the only one in the 42 member Congressional Black Caucus to oppose the health care reform bill.  Davis' majority black congressional district in Alabama is one of the poorest in the country and boasts the state's highest HIV/AIDS rates.

Davis has been a reliable anti-gay vote. Davis was the only black congressman to oppose extending hate crime protections to LGBTs. Davis was the only black congressman to oppose the historic ENDA vote in 2007. (Clarke and Towns voted "no" because it did not include transgender protections.) Davis abstained from voting on last week's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal as an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act. 

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The predictably anti-gay Rep. Artur Davis—the black conservative Democrat from Birmingham, Alabama who boasts an abysmal 45 percent Human Rights Campaign score—was elected on a campaign pledge to "improve health care" in his overwhelmingly black, low-income and un-insured west Alabama district. Davis aligned with Alabama's House delegation to vote unanimously against the health care legislation approved late Sunday.

Alabama's only black congressman was the only one in the 42 member Congressional Black Caucus to oppose the bill. Davis was the only black congressman to oppose the historic ENDA vote in 2007. (Clarke and Towns voted "no" because it did not include transgender protections.) Davis, who  voted against the House health care version last year, was the also the only black congressman to oppose extending hate crime protections to LGBTs. Of the 34 Democrats to vote "no" last night, his is the most Democratic-leaning district of any no vote, reports Salon, which crowned Davis "the most cowardly Democrat" in Congress. Very fitting indeed.

His 7th District gave Barack Obama nearly 73 percent of the vote in 2008. Davis, who ousted an incumbent Democrat (Earl Hilliard) in a primary in 2002, has spent the last few years as the least liberal member of the Congressional Black Caucus. But his departures from the party line have intensified this year as he runs for governor of Alabama -- a much tougher task than running in his safely Democratic district. Whether voting no will help him with his state’s electorate remains to be seen.

Davis is running against Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks, who is white, for the Democratic nomination. Davis' majority black congressional district in Alabama is one of the poorest in the country, boasts the state's highest HIV/AIDS rates and is the epicenter of the state's syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia epidemic, "among the highest in the country", reports WKRG.

Says Davis of his vote against expanding health care to his district's poor and low income residents: "I just don't see this as a racial vote or a racial issue."

Of course it isn't. Priorities, priorities ...

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Anti-Gay Artur Davis was the Only Black Vote Against Health Care

In April, the predictably anti-gay Artur Davis—the black conservative Democrat from Birmingham, Alabama who boasts an abysmal 45 percent Human Rights Campaign score—was the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote against the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Davis later voted for the 2010 Department of Defense Authorization Bill conference report that included the Matthew Shepard Act.

Over the weekend, Davis again made distinction: The congressman was one of 39 Democrats and apparently the only member of the CBC to vote against the health care bill approved Saturday night. The Alabama and Mississippi congressional delegations presented an almost unified wall of opposition. All Democratic and Republican members, except for Mississippi's Bennie Thompson, who is black, voted against the bill.

President Obama won 74 percent of the vote in Davis' 7th district. Despite the overwhelming support for the President, Davis is running for governor of the conservative-leaning state next November. Davis, of course, is looking to safeguard against attacks from Republicans. The irony is that blacks and rural voters in Alabama have lower access to health care and are paying higher premiums than the average. But that's politics.

UPDATE: Kayman has more at Left in Alabama.

Anti-Gay Artur Davis, Only Black Congressman to Vote Against Hate Crimes, Explains His Vote

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act—which extends federal hate crime protections to gays and lesbians—by a vote of 249-175. The Congressional Black Caucus overwhelmingly supported the legislation. There are 42 members of the CBC. Illinois Sen. Roland Burris, of course, did not vote on the House bill. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Donna Christian-Christensen are non-voting delegates. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Al Green of Texas missed the roll call but previously voted for Hate Crimes and ENDA and have solid pro-gay records (PDF). Of the 37 members who could vote on the bill, 36 supported it.

The only "no" vote came from the predictably anti-gay Artur Davis, the conservative Democrat from Birmingham who boasts an abysmal  45 percent score (PDF) by the Human Rights Campaign. Davis joined the entire Alabama congressional delegation—"including two other purported 'Democrats'" reports Birmingham Blues—to oppose the gay-inclusive legislation.

Two years ago, I voted for federal hate crimes legislation. Since casting that vote, a number of my constituents have made it very clear to me that they disagreed with this vote, and I have tried to weigh their arguments carefully. Some of the objections have been based on distortions of what this bill actually does. Other objections have reflected nothing more than animosity toward some of the groups who would be covered.

Some of my constituents ask why our federal laws should pick out some Americans for more protections than others. Some wonder why, in a culture that rejects violence against any human being, we should say that an attack on a black, or a woman, or a gay individual should be punished more severely than an attack on someone who happens to be a senior citizen, or a soldier, or a teacher. Others ask why some motives based on certain ideas should be punished by our criminal laws more aggressively than others.

The biggest difference between 2007 and now: Davis is running for governor.  If elected the state's first black chief executive, Time magazine writes in a glowing profile this week, his "election would deliver another blow to what remains of the G.O.P.'s racially divisive Southern Strategy." Oh and refusing to acknowledge anti-gay violence and harassment is a quick and cheap way to beef up his conservative credentials in the overwhelmingly red state.

Davis was also the only black congressman to oppose the historic ENDA vote in 2007. (Clarke and Towns voted "no" because it did not include transgender protections.) At the time, Davis employed similarly fuzzy logic and Keith Boykin noted the irony: "White racists in Alabama opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 using almost the same identical argument he uses to justify his opposition to this legislation. In 1964, they said the civil rights law would unfairly impede on the rights of individual employers to make their own decisions."

It's great that we have a congressman who has a shot at being Alabama's first black governor. But there is absolutely nothing progressive about him, or his candidacy, if Davis refuses to recognize discrimination and bias attacks against another minority. It's a shame and a disgrace that Davis parrots the exact same bigoted and myopic arguments once used by racist Alabamans such as Gov. George Wallace. Davis, of all people, should know better. Shame on you, congressman.