Boggs McDonald’s remark angers blacks

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 11:31 a.m.

Leaders of the Las Vegas black community demanded an apology today from County Commissioner Lynette Boggs McDonald for comparing the Democratic Party to a plantation.

In a story printed Thursday in the Las Vegas Sun, Boggs McDonald said, "From my perspective, there is one last plantation in America and it's called the Democratic Party." Boggs McDonald, running as an incumbent for the District F commission seat, was speaking in the context of explaining her switch to the Republican Party in the late 1990s.

Boggs McDonald is black.

"Lynette owes the African-American community and the Democratic Party an apology," said Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus.

Boggs McDonald said this morning that her comments have to be taken in the context of the modern Democratic Party, which "takes African-American voters for granted."

"In my life, I have seen people of all races and genders can be members of either party, but Democrats expect African-Americans to be only Democrats," she said.

She said polling shows she has strong support within the black community in her district, which includes the upscale community of Summerlin. Boggs McDonald said her support isn't due to her race, but to her work as a Las Vegas city official, city councilwoman and now county commissioner.

"I'm proud of my support in the African-American community," she said. "I have worked hard in my tenure in public office for that support ... I have a long history of involvement in the African-American community in West Las Vegas. "

Boggs McDonald said one of her proudest accomplishments as a public official was to broker the creation of the enterprise park at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Lake Mead Drive. The 80-acre development includes black-oriented schools, businesses and the offices of the Urban Chamber of Commerce, she said.

"That transition alone was one of the major economic development projects after the Rodney King riots."

She also has been active with the St. James Catholic Church in predominantly black West Las Vegas, serving on the church's building committee.

She said the policies of the Republican leadership in the White House and Congress have spurred minority home ownership to an all-time high and encouraged small-business development for women and minorities.

The Bush administration, Boggs McDonald said, has one of the most ethnically diverse cabinets in history.

"I can never beat emotion and theatrics ... (but) the reality is that I have substantial support within the African-American community because I have earned that support," she said. "Many Democrats find that threatening."

The Democrats also took issue with Boggs McDonald's claim that the Republican Party is the party of "progress, prosperity and development," arguing that under Republican leadership, unemployment reached its highest point since 1994, and black unemployment is up 26 percent since Bush took office in January 2001.

Citing federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Democrats said in a news relrease that black unemployment declined by 48 percent during the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, dipping from 14.1 percent in January 1993 to 7.3 percent in December 2000. During the Bush presidency, black unemployment peaked at 11.8 percent in June 2003, marking the highest unemployment rate for blacks since May 1994.

The number of blacks without health insurance and living in poverty also have increased, the party said in the statement.

In the Sun story that included the controversial quote, Boggs McDonald was criticizing her Democratic opponent, Assemblyman David Goldwater, for embracing a slow-growth position in response to concerns about traffic, air and water quality and supply and other issues affected by population pressures.

Boggs McDonald said 170,000 people directly and indirectly get their livelihood from the construction industry in Clark County.

"It's easy to turn the spigot off, but it's hard to turn it back on," she said. "I want Las Vegas to be a place where people can find jobs and start businesses."