Pryor, others focus on blacks’ concerns

WASHINGTON - Saying that as an Arkansan he felt a “special burden” to address civil-rights issues, Sen. Mark Pryor on Friday held a “debriefing conference call” with Arkansas reporters to discuss interviews he and other Democratic senators gave to black journalists the previous day.

On Friday’s call, Pryor said he participated in the news conference with blacks, in part because this week marks the 50th anniversary of the murder of Medgar Evers, the Mississippi civil-rights leader.

He listed legislation he supported that he said benefited black constituents and said that although progress has been made in eliminating racial bias, there was more work to be done to ensure people aren’t discriminated against because of their skin color.

He said Arkansas played a large part - “some good, some bad” - in the “mosaic” of the civil-rights era.

“We shouldn’t stick our head in the sand and pretend it never happened,” he said, referring to discrimination in the United States.

Thursday’s news conference was hosted in the U.S. Capitol by the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, a group of Senate Democrats that tries to advance the party’s priorities with the general public. Pryor said between 10 and 15 senators attended. Pryor’s office provided a list of participants who were either there or listening in on the phone, including journalists from The Washington Post, The Associated Press, Gannett Newspapers and nearly 20 other media outlets.

Pryor said that at the Thursday event, he and about 10 other Democratic senators highlighted proposals they said would benefit blacks, including the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health-care overhaul; legislation to increase funding for historically black colleges; a bill to expedite the treatment of civil-rights claims at the U.S.Department of Agriculture; and legislation to increase funding for a range of education programs, including Head Start and Pell Grants.

“African-Americans are going to benefit from these programs,” Pryor said Friday.

Arkansas Republicans said the Capitol media event and the press call held to discuss it were attempts by Pryor to connect with a voting bloc he had “alienated.”

Since he announced his re-election campaign in March, Pryor has attempted to distance himself from President Barack Obama, according to David Ray, spokesman for the Republican Party of Arkansas. The result, Ray said, was that blacks in Arkansas, a crucial voting bloc for anyone seeking statewide office, were lukewarm in their support for the Democratic incumbent.

Ray pointed to a Little Rock news conference held in April by several black legal experts who criticized Pryor for not providing the White House with enough black picks to be considered for federal judgeships.

“Clearly he’s got some problems with African-American voters,” Ray said. “He’s trying to repair some of those relationships.”

The National Republican Senatorial Committee said Pryor was “vulnerable.”

“After being MIA, Pryor is now playing the typical Washington politician game of catchup and trying to visit with those he’s ignored the last several years,” said Brook Hougesen, the group’s spokesman.

One of the participants in Thursday’s press event, Leroy Jones, host of Political Jones, a radio show aired on 175 stations nationwide on the American Urban Radio Networks, said the news conference was a chance for Senate Democrats to get their message out to a key constituency in the party.

Jones said Republicans have missed opportunities to connect with black voters, who he said are often conservative on social issues.

“The GOP has failed to tap into that,” he said. “The Republican Party has dropped the ball.”

Front Section, Pages 2 on 06/15/2013

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