04-11-2008, 10:21 AM
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na...0,6553901.story
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"This is a machine city, and ward leaders have to pay their committee people," Campbell said. "Barack Obama's campaign doesn't pay workers, and I guarantee you if they don't put up some money for those street workers, those leaders will most likely take Clinton money. It won't stop him [Obama] from winning Philadelphia, but he won't come out with the numbers that he needs" to win the state.
A neutral observer, state Rep. Dwight Evans, whose district is in northwest Philadelphia, said there may be a racial subtext to the dispute. Ward leaders, he said, see Obama airing millions of dollars worth of television ads in the city -- money that benefits largely white station owners, feeding resentment. People wonder why Obama isn't sharing the largesse with the largely African American field workers trying to get him elected, Evans said.
"They view it that the white people are getting all the money for TV," said Evans, an African American and former ward leader. "And they're the ones who are the foot soldiers on the street. They're predominantly African Americans, and they're not the ones who are getting that TV money."
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->"This is a machine city, and ward leaders have to pay their committee people," Campbell said. "Barack Obama's campaign doesn't pay workers, and I guarantee you if they don't put up some money for those street workers, those leaders will most likely take Clinton money. It won't stop him [Obama] from winning Philadelphia, but he won't come out with the numbers that he needs" to win the state.
A neutral observer, state Rep. Dwight Evans, whose district is in northwest Philadelphia, said there may be a racial subtext to the dispute. Ward leaders, he said, see Obama airing millions of dollars worth of television ads in the city -- money that benefits largely white station owners, feeding resentment. People wonder why Obama isn't sharing the largesse with the largely African American field workers trying to get him elected, Evans said.
"They view it that the white people are getting all the money for TV," said Evans, an African American and former ward leader. "And they're the ones who are the foot soldiers on the street. They're predominantly African Americans, and they're not the ones who are getting that TV money."
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