More than a day after former senator Fred Thompson, R-TN, announced he would join three other leading GOP presidential candidates in shunning an upcoming debate at a historically black college in Baltimore, none of the leading Democratic campaigns for president has formally criticized their decision.
The absence of Republicans Thompson, Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, at the Sept, 27 debate at Morgan State University drew scorn from several prominent African American officials, including the debate's moderator, Tavis Smiley. But only representatives from the presidential campaigns of Gov. Bill Richardson, D-NM, and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-CT, weighed in on the matter.
"Given that we have suffered through some of the most divisive politics in generations, you would think that anyone who wished to lead would make attending these historic debates a scheduling priority rather than a scheduling afterthought," Dodd spokeswoman Kate Szostak told the Huffington Post.
"It's a real shame," Richardson's spokesman Tom Reynolds told the Huffington Post, "because democracy should not be defined by race or ethnicity. We think the GOP is missing an opportunity to talk to a large, growing population of the country."
Officials with Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, Barack Obama, D-IL, and former North Carolina senator John Edwards all did not return repeated requests for comment. Their silence, according to some political observers, was an effort to avoid being perceived as partisan on racial issues. And while some African-American political groups were left waiting for stronger criticism of Thompson's actions, their anger was mainly directed at Thompson himself.
"Everyone of the Democrats went to the National Urban League to talk about their urban agenda," said Hillary Shelton, director of the National Associate for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) Washington Bureau. "They came to the NAACP to talk about how they would address issues important to us.... On the other side of the issue they won't respond to African American issues, period."
Earlier this summer, every Republican running for president save McCain rejected an invitation to participate in a debate sponsored by the Spanish-language network Univision. Currently, five Republican candidates remain committed to attending the Morgan State event, which will go on with four empty lecterns. Several of these candidates used the news of Thompson's absence to promote their standing among minority voters.
"[Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-AL,] has a long history of addressing the needs of the African American community," his spokeswoman Alice Stewart told the Huffington Post. "He's likely the only candidate running for President who garnered 48% of the African American vote."
No one in the Republican field, however, would directly take on their political brethren for skipping out on the debate.
"It's their decision if they want to participate or not," said John Rankin, spokesman for presidential candidate, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-KS. "The Senator will be there because he thinks those issues are important."