HAD THE Democrats chosen an African-American running mate in Maryland's race for governor, I never would have had my head turned by Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Michael S. Steele.
The Democrats needed to form a bond in three geographic areas key to a win, and had solid candidate potential in former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Prince George's County Executive Wayne K. Curry, veteran Montgomery County Council member Isiah Leggett and Clarence W. Blount, a senior respected member of the state legislature. None was selected. It seems that no matter how accomplished he is, a black man can get no respect. So when Congressman Ehrlich chose the telegenic Mr. Steele as his lieutenant governor, he got my attention.
In a color-struck society such as ours, a black guy and a white guy teaming up and calling each other friend raises either a warm feeling of hope or a brow of suspicion. In this instance, you had a smart, confident white guy from Arbutus who failed the NAACP's legislative decency test and a smart, confident black guy from Prince George's County who failed the "Is He Black Enough?" test. They are both Republicans. Suspicion was very high. I had to at least look.
Who were these guys? How serious could they be about winning in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1, where an African-American had never been elected to statewide office, where black Republicans are treated as non-persons, and where the white state Senate president feels comfortable calling the black candidate an Uncle Tom in public?
No, those two couldn't be serious. Besides, if any political party was going to be the first to select a serious black running mate in this state, it was the friends of black folks, the Democrats. When the time was right, of course.
Unfortunately, the time was not right this time for the party for which I have been a loyalist for 38 years. Over the years, I have entered the voting booth and, like so many thousands of other African-Americans, pressed the lever to support the Democratic Party's choices no matter how myopic the view, how dumb the position or how weak the candidate.
My conditioned rationale was that the Democrats were proven friends to my race, so they deserved my support. And I gave it to them to a fault. When they chose an unknown, last-minute white Republican crossover as the Democratic running mate, I felt betrayed.
Mr. Ehrlich and Mr. Steele caught me on the rebound. They made me look at their candidacy. They talked about inclusion and a decision-making seat for all stripes at the table. I did my homework and liked what I saw. They were not the Republican devils they had been painted to be.
I signed on to write radio and print ads for black media and had the most intellectually stimulating time of my life working with the campaign and "Democrats for Ehrlich," a grass-roots team of politically and socially conscious souls determined to help the Republican candidates win the gubernatorial match despite huge odds.
The weeks went on. And then show time, Election Day. In the voting booth, I stared at the pad marked with Mr. Ehrlich's name, knowing that selecting his tab was a vote for change and a good point of reference in Maryland history with the first African-American lieutenant governor. I saw my vote as a manifesto from black Democrats to the Democratic Party leadership not to take my support for granted ever again.
I also saw myself standing in the voting booth eight years forward preparing to cast my vote to elect the first black governor of Maryland, an opportunity made possible not by the Democratic Party I loyally supported all those years but by a Republican candidate who chose as a running mate a black friend and colleague and got my attention.
Allegra Bennett, a Democrat, is a writer who lives in Baltimore City. She worked for the Ehrlich-Steele campaign.