Governor Ritter answers a question from Randy McCowan (left of the Governor) as Gloria Neal (left) and Amania Ali (right) listen.
On July 8, Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr. invited members of Colorado’s African American media for a meeting at his offices in the state capitol.
“I thought it was good to devote a press event, a press briefing to communities of color,” Ritter told those in attendance – mainly representatives from Black print, radio and television in Denver and Colorado Springs.
“Often times I think it is difficult (for you) to make all of the press things we do, and we generate a lot of attention, but I want to make sure that the questions you have are the questions we are answering.”
In many ways, it was an opportune time for the Governor to reach out to the minority press. Just two days prior, he had received praise from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius for the state’s child health care outreach efforts, primarily in minority communities. The Governor has also recently found himself in charge of distributing billions in federal stimulus money over the next two years, much of which will go to these same communities.
Ritter opened the meeting by identifying these and other steps he feels his administration has undergone or plans to undergo that will disproportionately benefit communities of color. He added to this list dual enrollment, eliminating waiting lists at preschools for at risk youth, the Health Care Affordability Act, job creation in the form of employer tax credits and health programs geared at decreasing recidivism.
Ritter then ended by introducing Maranda Pleau who in June he had recently appointed minority outreach coordinator of his Economic Recovery Team.
“Part of Maranda’s mission is to ensure that when we spend Recovery Act dollars, we are thinking about all the ways those Recovery Act dollars can and should get into communities of color,” said Ritter.
Gloria Neal, reporter, CBS4/KCNC, then asked Ritter how much of the federal stimulus money would make it to minority and women-owned businesses.
“It is too soon to answer that question,” said Ritter. “What I can tell you is, that’s Miranda’s task in life right now, is to look at how we do this and do it well. This is a very dicey thing. Colorado is the state that went to the Supreme Court as a defendant b a white contractor who was attacking our department of transportation’s ability to set quotas for minority businesses. What we have at CDOT are goals, and how we achieve these goals is really a function of how committed we are to ensuring there are minority contractors that are going to be able to participate in the transportation world, in the water funding, in the weatherization funding.”
With all of Ritter’s optimism came questions about how this information would get out to minority communities.
“Lack of knowledge seems to be a real, real big problem, not only with the communities of color but slash – faith,” said PM Wynn, co-publisher and columnist for Body of Christ Newspaper. “We have a lot of people of color that just don’t know the things that you are telling them.”
“There needs to be a bridging with the people of color – communities and the faith based – because you have a very strong base there and I know that you meet with the pastors, but sometimes that information might not go any further than that congregation of the pastors who are at that meeting. Or not at all…How can we better partner, how can we better be informed and (help) people be educated, like about the health care?”
“I would say that is the purpose of this meeting – number one,” said Ritter. “The second thing is in this room I have people from my staff that are all committed to doing what we are trying to do here today. I don’t just meet with the pastors; I have met with the African American Chamber of Commerce (Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce), Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce). I meet with business groups; labor groups heavily with people of communities of color as part of their membership. We do a variety of things in terms of outreach. There is the Latino forum that I meet with, that I’m trying to meet with quarterly and speak to them. So it’s not just one group of people.”
“We have to rely upon some surrogates because I am only one person,” added Ritter. “It feels like I am working a lot,” he said with a smile.
One such surrogate on the Governor’s team, deputy communications director Wil Alston, was lauded by Amani Ali, president of the Colorado Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) and an executive producer at 850 KOA Radio
“As president of the Colorado Association of Black Journalists, I think one of the problems we have is how to approach your office,” Ali told Ritter. “And one of the best ways to do that is – I think you have an incredible asset with Wil Alston. Wil knows this community backwards and forwards.”
As the meeting neared its end, Ritter hinted that a press event such as this might not be so uncommon in the future. With his reelection campaign now getting underway, it might turn out to be a good idea.
A recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau reported that Black and Latino voter turnout has risen five and 10 percentage points respectively from the 2004 to 2008 presidential elections.
“There are a lot of things that we do, that we think about, that may not get publicized,” said Ritter. “And we do not have enough time in the world to talk about it.”
