A former Metro Councilman said Monday he is responsible for recorded election-day telephone calls asking black people to stay home and not vote in the 6th District congressional election.

The state Democratic Party asked for a restraining order and is investigating the “robo-calls” that incorrectly left the impression that a former black candidate was behind the effort.

State Rep. Don Cazayoux of New Roads won the election for the seat vacated by Richard Baker, largely because of the overwhelming majorities of votes he won in predominantly black precincts, according to election returns.
Cazayoux, who is white, made it to the general election after defeating Baton Rouge state Rep. Michael Jackson, who is black, in an April Democratic Party runoff election.

Former Metro Councilman Darrell Glasper, who calls himself a community activist, said Monday he recorded the phone messages under the name “Friends of Michael Jackson.” Glasper said he felt the state party did not adequately support Jackson as a candidate in the runoff.

“They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Baton Rouge, all the nine parishes, to help a white Democrat get elected,” Glasper said. “They could not have done this without the help of the minority community.”

Glasper said he was trying to “stir debate” among black voters, who have long been loyal to the Democratic Party, as to what they are getting in return.
He said he sent the message to about 10,000 numbers before Jackson called and asked him to stop. He said he planned to reach 60,000.
Jackson said he had nothing to do with the message. Glasper said he didn’t need to ask or tell Jackson about the message.

“As a taxpayer and a community activist, I think that a person who cares about their community will do what’s best for the community,” Glasper said. “And I think it was best for the community to stir the debate.”
Democratic Party Chairman Chris Whittington said Glasper was not hurting the party.

“That is fraudulent voter participation suppression,” Whittington said. “So who is he hurting? He’s hurting the black community that’s fought so long for their right to vote.”

Whittington said the party did not support either candidate before Cazayoux won the runoff election.
“He’s delusional,” Whittington said.

Judge Janice Clark of Baton Rouge’s 19th Judicial District Court, signed a temporary restraining order Saturday to stop the use of Jackson’s name without his approval.

Jackson wrote a sworn affidavit supporting the request.
Whittington said federal election statutes may have been violated by the message and the party’s attorneys are considering further action.
Part of the message cited in the order says, “The national and state Democratic parties always seem to back the white Democrat over the black Democrat, and that’s wrong. A lot of us who are supporting Michael Jackson feel the national Democratic Party need to be taught a lesson.”

The message goes on to say that Saturday’s Republican candidate, Woody Jenkins, would be easier to beat in November, when black presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is on the ballot.
“On Saturday we are going to stay home and see how the national Democrat Party do without us,” the message, according to the restraining order, concludes.

According to Saturday’s election results, the message apparently had little effect on black voter turnout.
Demographer Greg Rigamer of New Orleans said in precincts with more than 80 percent black registered voters, Cazayoux polled about 91 percent of the vote Saturday.

In the April runoff, which had a lower turnout, Jackson received 89 percent of the vote in those same precincts.
“So they didn’t stay home because Jackson wasn’t in it,” Rigamer said. “There may be disappointment but why would somebody opt to be disenfranchised? If you don’t show up at all, that’s what happens.”
Albert Samuels, an associate political science professor at Southern University, said a number of black voters feel they have not received the same support they have given the Democratic Party.

“That could be fed on potentially in an election,” he said.
The situation could be compounded in the fall with the presidential election, Samuels said.

“Suppose Barack Obama doesn’t get the nomination. Suppose black voters feel that is stolen from him. That could also play out in this local election as well,” he said.

Cazayoux is only finishing the unexpired term of the district seat, which ends in January 2009. Jackson said he will run for the seat when it comes up again in November.

Kirby Goidel, a professor of mass communication and political science at LSU, said Cazayoux’s win broke the 33-year hold Republicans had on the 6th District seat. But a divided party in the fall could result in a Republican comeback, he said.

“The Democratic Party really has to address that,” he said.

Source: The Advocate, SARAH CHACKO