ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
July 15, 2004
Hip Hop Summit activists
pledge 10,000 new voters
Yawu Miller
Come July 26, downtown Boston will be overrun by
thousands of Democratic delegates and thousands more members of
the press covering day two of the Democratic National Convention.
That same day, a chartered plane, paid for by hip hop mogul Russell
Simmons, will land at Logan Airport. On board will be many of
the biggest names in contemporary hip hop, in town for the Boston
Hip Hop Summit.
The summit will be free for the 18-year-old-plus target audience
for the event, but only for those who are registered voters. The
event, aimed at increasing voter registration and turnout, has
captivated the attention of local activists and elected officials.
“On the 26th of July, we’re going to register at least
10,000 young people,” said Gloria Fox during a press conference
last week to announce the initiative.
Fox’s projection may be more realistic than it seems. Boston’s
summit mirrors hip hop summits that have been held in major cities
across the country. Last year, during Philadelphia Mayor John
Street’s battle against Republican businessman Sam Katz,
the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network claims it registered 11,000
young people to vote.
“John Street was re-elected by a landslide vote of young
people,” said Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, the President and
CEO of the network.
In Boston, the network plans to utilize existing community organizations
to help with voter registration in the weeks leading up to the
election and the get-out-the-vote effort on election day. Muhammad
said his organization would distribute small grants to organizations
for the effort, but did not give an exact amount.
Ron Bell, executive director of Dunk The Vote, said he has already
trained more than 100 volunteers to help with the voter registration
effort.
“They’re ready to hit the streets after this press
conference,” he said. “We’re ready to bring
it on.”
The same volunteers will also be asked to work on a get-out-the-vote
effort for the November election. Muhammad displayed a green card
that will be given to newly-registered voters. On the card, voters
are asked to list cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
“Between now and November 2, they’re going to get
a text message,” Muhammad said. “They’re going
to get an e-mail message from Sean P. Diddy Combs. Closer to the
election, they’re going to get a telephone call from Russell
Simmons.”
In addition to the recorded celebrity messages, voters who fill
out the cards will be contacted by Dunk the Vote volunteers.
Muhammad said that over the last three years the Hip-Hop Summit
Action Network registered more than one million young people through
its initiatives. With the Democratic National Convention happening
at the same time, Boston’s summit will be especially important.
“The most important summit in any part of the world will
be here in Boston,” he said. “Every major hip hop
artist is changing their schedule to be at the summit.”
While the media attention may raise the profile of the organization,
however, political observers widely perceive Massachusetts as
having little significance in the presidential race. Because Massachusetts
voters tend to vote Democratic in presidential elections and because
Kerry enjoys a home-state advantage here, it’s seen as a
given that Bush will lose here.
Because presidential elections are decided by electoral college
votes, and not a popular vote, the size of the turnout for Kerry
here will have no bearing on what happens in the rest of the country.
Swing states like Florida, Illinois and California are generally
seen as far more important.
At the same time, there are few contested local races in Boston.
Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral is the sole African American
candidate facing an opponent in the September primary. And, unless
the network’s campaign focuses on the September primary,
it will be of little use to Cabral.
Guillermo Quinteros, executive director of the Commonwealth Coalition,
said the organization’s success will turn on its ability
to connect voters with issues that affect their day-to-day lives.
“People should vote because they’re concerned about
the issues affecting their community, not just because some famous
person calls them,” he said.
For a voter mobilization strategy to have a lasting impact in
Boston, it must give voters incentives to cast their ballot beyond
any single election. Local elections, like the city council race
next year, tend to have a more direct impact on voters’
lives than presidential elections, according to Quinteros.
“Elections in Boston are decided in the primaries,”
he said. “We need to devise strategies to get people voting
in the primaries.”
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