Republican presidential candidates Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney are skipping the National Urban League's annual conference this summer, and league president Marc Morial wants them to know he's not happy about it.
"We're sending notice, not just to the Republicans, but to all the candidates, that you're not going to ignore us," said Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who has led the black civil rights organization since 2003.
Speaking with The Politico to make clear his displeasure, Morial said he found it puzzling that the former New York mayor and former Massachusetts governor would not address his organization in July.
"It's an opportunity for them to speak to a very influential audience before a nonpartisan organization that has a history of being fair and balanced," Morial noted. "It sends an incredible message that you're not even going to go to the Urban League," which will convene in St. Louis.
Considered to be more moderate than its contemporary civil rights group, the NAACP, the Urban League has drawn President Bush to its annual conference three times since he was elected in 2000, including in 2004, when Bush appeared a day after his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry. An Urban League spokesperson pointed out that Bush and former Vice President Al Gore attended the conference in 1999.
While Bush is unpopular among many blacks, Ken Mehlman, Bush's handpicked chairman of the Republican National Committee, made reaching out to black voters a focal point of his two-year tenure.
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