NAACP campaign faltering

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Friday, June 11, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

A Nevada voter registration campaign launched in January by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People voter fund has been leaderless for a month and is nowhere near its stated goals.

The campaign's lackluster results and what appears to be a lack of organization in its management "are not a good sign ..." said Eric Herzik, a University of Nevada, Reno political science professor.

The problem comes 14 months after the organization had to form a new Las Vegas chapter. The old one fell apart amid internal struggles in 2001. The problem makes for what Herzik calls "a dicey period for the NAACP as a political organization."

When the program, aimed at increasing the number of black and other minority voters, began on Jan. 18, Lonnie L. Feemster, tapped as state coordinator, said he was "hoping to have the largest registration effort ever in the history of Nevada."

At that time Feemster said he would budget about $200,000 over the nine months leading up to the October registration cut-off date and sign up 50,000 new voters.

But Feemster said Thursday the campaign had reached about 2,000 voters and that he had "adjusted the goal" to 10,000. The total number of blacks of voting age statewide is 92,970; in Clark County, it's 85,085, according to Census 2000.

Feemster also said that he had stepped down as coordinator on May 14, after announcing his intentions to run for state assembly. NAACP rules prohibit running a voter registration campaign while also running for office, he said.

The former leader of the drive also said he could not say how much money had been spent to register voters and referred that question to the national office of the voter fund.

Claude Foster, national field director of the NAACP voter fund, would not reveal how much had been spent on the campaign. He said that Feemster had received a salary, but wouldn't say for how much.

He also said Feemster had a "staff that is available to him if he should choose to go that route.

"We have dedicated the level of funding to achieve our goals," he said.

When asked what those goals were, he said, "doing outreach to the African-American community of Washoe and Clark counties ... and registering 8,000 new voters."

Later, he said the numbers he hoped for were 1,200 new voters a month from Clark County and 400 a month from Washoe County.

"The goals are constantly being evaluated and adaptations are being made," he said.

The Web site for the national voter fund says the campaign as a whole aims to "register and turnout (sic) 250,000 new voters."

Foster also said that he had planned to be in Las Vegas next week to interview candidates to take over the Nevada campaign, but had to reschedule due to other commitments.

"It's at the top of our priorities," he said.

Meanwhile, Dean Ishman, president of the Las Vegas chapter since it was given back its charter last April, said that a new statewide director for the campaign had been chosen, but "not officially accepted."

Ishman, who will be up for re-election to lead the local chapter in November, said he wasn't "on top of the voter campaign" and had left the leadership to Feemster.

Herzik said the discrepancies between different accounts of the campaign were indicative of problems seen in the civil rights group in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

"They've had their organizational problems everywhere -- not just Las Vegas," he said.

"And if you have organizational disarray and come out with bold goals, then you're going to fall short," he said.

Andres Ramirez, state director for a voter registration campaign run by Voices for Working Families, a nonprofit organization, said reaching "community empowerment in minority communities is needed."

His group is targeting 300 of the county's more than 1,000 precincts based on their minority populations. His campaign will spend $500,000 on registering 35,000 new voters from those precincts before November, with a paid staff of up to 50.

Herzik said coming through on promises is important for organizations that hope to gain support from the community.

"If you can't deliver, your organization ... stands up and says, 'We're going to do X,' and the community will roll their eyes and walk away," he said.