Rand Paul to Urban League: Laws still unjust

Republican Rand Paul on Friday continued his efforts to reach out to African Americans, a voting bloc that has proved elusive for the GOP in national elections for more than 50 years.

But reaction to the overtures from the Kentucky senator — and potential presidential candidate — ranged from tepid to pointed. And Democrats again attacked him as inconsistent.

Appearing in Cincinnati early Friday at the National Urban League Conference, Paul declared that the nation's criminal laws still lacked justice for minorities and required reform.

"I say enough's enough. I won't sit idly by and watch our criminal justice system continue to consume, confine and define our young men," Paul said. "I say we take a stand and fight for justice now."

But Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat, said Paul has a problem: He opposes raising the minimum wage, equal pay for women, nutrition assistance and the Affordable Care Act.

"He doesn't understand that African-Americans don't reject Republicans because they have largely ignored black communities for decades or because they don't have enough offices in communities of color," she wrote in a Cincinnati Enquirer op-ed. "Paul should face the fact that the Republican Party pushes an agenda that slows down — and even flat-out reverses — the progress our community has made."

In his address, Paul announced that he was introducing a bill immediately to eliminate legal distinctions that have resulted in harsher sentences for possession of crack cocaine than for the powder form of the drug. The difference has led to longer jail terms for crack possession, which legal experts say generally affects minorities more than whites.

President Barack Obama in 2010 signed a law that reduced the differences between mandatory crack and powder cocaine sentences. Paul now wants those differences eliminated.

The senator told the civil rights group's gathering that four out of five people in American prisons for non-violent crimes are African-American or Hispanic, and that must be addressed.

Judges must be given more discretion in sentencing and mandatory minimum sentences must be abolished, he said.

"Our nation has come a long way since the civil rights movement, but we must realize that race still plays a role in the enforcement of the law," Paul said.

Paul reminded his audience that he is working with Democrats like Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., on legislation that would expunge records for non-violent and youth-related crimes under certain circumstances.

The senator sees that change as essential to restoring voting rights and improving job opportunities for minorities.

Paul said his goal is to help more people vote.

"We have to be together to defend the rights of all minorities," the Kentuckian said.

Paul has made appeals to African Americans part of his message as he travels the nation. He has said that unless the GOP becomes more inclusive, the party will wither and die.

The senator also has visited African American universities and colleges, asking young people to give the Republican Party a fresh look.

The last Republican presidential candidates to get significant slices of the black vote were Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 (39 percent) and Richard M. Nixon in 1960 (32 percent).

After President Lyndon B. Johnson successfully pushed civil rights and voting rights bills through Congress in 1964 and 1965, no Republican running for the White House has received more than 15 percent of the black vote — the most recent was President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, according to research by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington.

Paul said he supported the Civil Rights Act and the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

Paul was graciously received at his Ohio appearance by Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, who told the audience the visit was the outgrowth of a meeting he had with the senator this year in Washington.

Morial told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday that there was "a lot of curiosity" about Paul.

"The first step we have to take is a step of having dialogue," Morial said. The conference was "an opportunity for many of our delegates to hear from people like (Republican National Committee Chairman) Reince Priebus and Rand Paul for the first time because there's been a disengagement over the past four to five years by many Republican leaders."

But Paul was not a huge draw. Although he got some applause, only about 60 people attended his talk.

Rawlings-Blake said in her op-ed that African Americans won't be fooled by Paul. Among other things, she noted that Paul previously criticized the Civil Rights Act for barring discrimination by private businesses.

"While I applaud anyone's efforts to reach out to the black community and share ideas that would improve our families' lives, Paul doesn't understand a very important piece of the puzzle: earning our trust," the mayor wrote. "For Paul to claim to stand up for our values while opposing policy after policy that advances our community is not the way to do this."

Paul has insisted he supports all of the Civil Rights Act.

He reiterated that stance after he was criticized in a July 8 Courier-Journal op-ed by former Kentucky State Sen. Georgia Powers, who wrote that "behind Paul's outstretched hand, we find a man whose words and deeds expose a troubling belief system."

In his own Courier-Journal op-ed on July 9, Paul insisted "I do not support discrimination of any kind, public or private."

But Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a House member from Florida, told the National Urban League that the GOP's priorities were in conflict with those of the African American community.

"It's still the same old Republican Party," she charged.

As for Kentucky's senator, the DNC chief said, "Rand Paul says he wants your vote, but his record shows something different."

Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (703) 854-8945. Follow him on Twitter at @JRCarrollCJ.