Kerry accuses Republicans of suppressing black vote

1.00pm - By ANDREW GUMBEL in Los Angeles

With his campaign floundering and even the Democratic Party faithful questioning his ability to beat George W. Bush in November, a more assertive John Kerry offered some red-meat rhetoric to African American voters, a key constituency, over the weekend as he accused his Republican opponents of deliberately seeking to suppress the black vote.

Speaking to a gala gathering of the Congressional Black Caucus, Senator Kerry alluded to - but did not spell out - instances of intimidation and deterrence already documented in this campaign season.

"We are not going to stand by and allow another million African American votes to go uncounted in this election," he said.

"What they did in Florida in 2000, some say they may be planning to do this year in battleground states all across this country.

"Well, we are here to let them know that we will fight tooth and nail to make sure that this time, every vote is counted and every vote counts."

The line won Mr Kerry the only standing ovation of his 35-minute speech and went some way towards restoring confidence in a candidate who has not otherwise enthused African Americans.

The black vote is assumed to be solidly Democrat - Al Gore won 90 per cent support in 2000 - but there have been growing complaints that the party takes the support for granted and offers little in return.

Polling over the summer suggests Mr Kerry may win only 80 per cent of the black vote - and could suffer a much greater net loss of votes if turnout drops.

Saturday night's speech appeared to be a recognition by the Kerry campaign that, with President Bush ahead in the polls and rapidly gaining ground in key battleground states, he needs to court every constituency he can.

After a disastrous August, the Kerry campaign has undergone a marked shift. Rather than allowing Republican attacks - on everything from his service in Vietnam to his voting record in the Senate - to go unanswered, the Massachusetts Senator has begun hitting back and allowing his surrogates to go negative on President Bush's own hole-ridden military service record.

That, in turn, reflects a new direction in Mr Kerry's campaign organisation.

It was the veteran Democratic Party operative Bob Shrum, an old friend and key campaign adviser, who urged him to ignore the Republican attacks and stay above the fray.

Now, however, Mr Shrum's influence has waned and a team of Clinton-era veterans - including former White House press spokesman Joe Lockhart and outspoken consultants James Carville and Paul Begala - command greater sway.

As Mr Kerry's fortunes have diminished, Washington has been abuzz with talk of the "Curse of Shrum" - a reference to the fact that Mr Shrum has worked on each of the Democrats' six unsuccessful presidential election campaigns since 1968 and none of the successful ones.

Mr Shrum's biggest mistake this time was arguably his decision to make Mr Kerry's service in Vietnam the centrepiece of July's Democratic National Convention, only to appear stunned and unprepared when the Republicans made Vietnam the focus of their post-convention counter-attacks.

Former President Clinton himself urged Mr Kerry to get more assertive - even speaking to him hours before undergoing open heart surgery last week - and the candidate has responded with trenchant attacks on the Bush administration over Iraq and the failure to renew a 10-year-old ban on assault weapons.

The issue of black voting rights is a burning one this year, with activists denouncing questionable police visits to the homes of active black voters in Orlando, Florida and an ominous comment by a state representative in Michigan urging Republicans to "suppress the Detroit vote" in November. (Detroit is 83 per cent black.)

On this and other issues, it remains to be seen whether Mr Kerry's can reinvigorate his support base, or whether his rhetorical jabs will be seen as too little and too late.

- INDEPENDENT