GOP Black Outreach: Pics with Actress Stacey Dash Do Little to Attract Minorities

By Crystal Wright, CP Op-Ed Contributor Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Every time I think the Republican National Committee is going to give me a break and not do something insulting, they give me another reason why neither I nor any other conservative should have any confidence in the RNC.

While RNC Chairman Reince Priebus has done nothing, I repeat nothing, but talk for six months about how he's going to attract more minority voters to the party, he thought he would keep up the charade at the RNC's spring meeting in Los Angeles.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and actress Stacey Dash.

In a move meant to pander to blacks, the RNC invited black actress Stacey Dash to the meeting, to pose for pictures with Priebus. I guess Priebus wanted to prove he's down with brown people. As a reminder, Dash supported Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and was attacked by black liberals for endorsing him.

Dash tweeted:

"@REALStaceyDashExcited to meet @reince tonight with my partners @patrickmillsaps & @ashleybellr at @GOP #RNC #GOP pic.twitter.com/t02KSuFBbV"

Dash calls Patrick Millsaps, former Newt Gingrich 2012 chief of staff and Ashley Bell, 2012 former Romney aide her "partners" so she knows them. But it's unclear why Dash was meeting with Priebus because the RNC is doing ZERO to take the conservative message to black voters. There's no evidence of any grassroots outreach effort to urban cities where large populations of minorities live or incorporating minorities into the RNC's media surrogates' program. Dash is stunning and was celebrity eye candy for conservative men to drool over at the RNC's Reagan Library dinner Friday night, April 12, 2013. Consultants were downright gleeful to meet Dash.

Patrick Millsaps tweeted:

"Patrick Millsaps ‏Looking forward to meeting with @Reince with friends @REALStaceyDash & @AshleyBellR tonight at #ReaganLibrary. @GOP pic.twitter.com/1OW2a6bjF3"

Ashley Bell, who also attended the RNC spring meeting in LA along with Millsaps because the RNC can't get enough of Romney consultants, tweeted his enthusiasm in meeting Dash with a photo:

"@Ashley D. Bell @SharonDay great seeing you today at the Reagan Library! @REALStaceyDash @PatrickMillsaps #rnc #tcot #bcot pic.twitter.com/jitIOgNpSp"

RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer and actress Stacey Dash.

What were all these consultants doing at the RNC's spring meeting? Getting paid by the RNC to run their same game plans for losing candidates as they did in 2012?

RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer, who unapologetically told me during a meeting in 2012 he had no blacks working in the RNC communications or political departments, tweeted this about meeting Dash:

"Sean Spicer ‏@seanspicer 12 Apr Very cool to have Stacy Dash at @GOP dinner at Reagan Library – @jameshohmann is clueless pic.twitter.com/FwnO9ARx45"

Gee Whiz! Spicer thinks it's cool to snap photos with a black actress but apparently very "uncool" to hire any blacks to work in his department at the RNC or use blacks in its surrogate program. Until now.

I recently lunched with newly hired RNC Deputy Press Secretary Raffi Williams, son of Juan Williams, tasked with "coordinating" the RNC's new outreach plan to minorities. I'm guessing Spicer finally checked the black box, now counting Raffi as the lone black hire in his department I asked Williams how the $10 million budget Reince announced to support the outreach plan would be allocated. Williams told me he didn't know because they wouldn't let him see the budget. I also asked him "What's the plan for black outreach?" He explained he was in the process of writing it.

Shocked and amazed I told him I thought that's what the 100 pages of Growth and Opportunity Project report was. "No," Williams said and told me the RNC wants him to write a plan for every activity he proposes. I looked at him dumbfounded and said, "So, it will be June before you guys do anything?" No response.

Instead of inviting Stacey Dash to cocktails at the Regan Library, Reince and his band of consultants should have asked Dash and some other prominent black Republicans like Allen West, Senator Tim Scott, Mia Love and Dr. Ben Carson to take the conservative message to the predominately black neighborhood of Compton in LA. The RNC could have hosted an open house with lunch at a church, community center or library inviting blacks to learn more about conservatism. But that would actually mean doing something.

In a recent Daily Caller article on the Romney campaign paying digital advertising firm Targeted Victory $94.5 million to produce ads which helped Romney lose, the writer sums up the problem facing the GOP. "There's a new culture war brewing in the GOP: Claims vs. results." In another tweet about his "friends," Bell tweeted:

"Ashley D. Bell ‏@AshleyBellR 12 Apr @REALStaceyDash @Reince @PatrickMillsaps together the future is bright for our Party & Nation. Stay tuned everyone! pic.twitter.com/d2MQ3fJM9h"

I have a feeling we'll have to "stay tuned" until 2016 to see any future changes from the RNC. Priebus and others seem to be happy recycling consultants, who have a track record of working with losing candidates. Pictures say a thousand words and so does a 100-page report called the Growth & Opportunity Project. No conservative should hold his or her breath the RNC is going to do anything different than it did in 2012. Time to do things ourselves.

Crystal Wright is a black conservative woman living in Washington, D.C. Some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat dominated city. By day, Crystal is a communications consultant and editor and publisher of the new website, www.conservativeblackchick.com. Ms. Wright holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Georgetown University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University.