It's a shame that the man who, according to the Washington Post, will emerge as a behind-the-scenes player in former Maryland Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s court case — in which he is being charged with using recorded phone messages to suppress black voter turnout — is African American. The man, Julius Henson, is a political consultant who specializes in getting African Americans out to the polls, mostly for Democrat candidates, the paper reports.
"Nearly an entire generation of local and state lawmakers in Prince George's County and Baltimore owe at least one of their ballot-box successes — or failures — over the past 15 years to his no-holds-barred approach to campaigning," the story says. To win those votes, Henson played on racial tensions and called opponents derogatory names.
Now Henson and his lawyers have to convince a jury that recorded calls placed last November by Ehrlich's campaign to people in those predominantly black areas did not cross the line into illegality. Before becoming entrenched in Ehrlich's camp, Henson branded the Republican a Nazi during a particularly contentious election. Henson should have asked himself if a man he called a Nazi would protect him when things got hot. Probably not.
Read more at the Washington Post.
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