Steele shrugs off foe’s attacks

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele said yesterday that Democratic attacks on his U.S. Senate candidacy have not hurt him but have sparked interest in his status as a black Republican.

“I hear it from people who come up to me who are angry themselves. They are sick of it. They are tired of it. It’s like, ‘Why are they coming after you?’ ” Mr. Steele told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

“The commercials that they have run have really not resonated the way I think they thought they would. It is not scaring people away from me. In fact, it is actually drawing them to pay closer attention,” he said.

Mr. Steele expressed support for full congressional voting rights for the District, discussed how his Catholic faith informs his politics and said he expects to win “20 to 25 percent” of the black vote in next month’s election.

He also said that he expects some white voters, including Republicans, will not vote for him because he is black.

“We have factored in in our numbers a percentage drop-off. I’m not silly,” Mr. Steele said. “Is it a concern? Sure it is — like anything.

“Will it be a factor in this race? Absolutely it will. You have to go into this race with your eyes wide open. You can’t sit back and pretend that everybody is going to love you and just vote for you because you are a member of their party or you hold their values.”

He said that all he can do to counter such attitudes is to “just get in your face.”

Mr. Steele’s Democratic opponent — Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin — has declined an invitation to be interviewed at The Times.

The Cardin campaign has focused on tying Mr. Steele to President Bush as part of a Democratic strategy to dampen the lieutenant governor’s appeal among blacks.

Blacks account for about 40 percent of registered Democrats in Maryland, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.

A poll targeted at black voters, which was released yesterday by Ariel & Ethan LLC in the political journal Hotline, showed Mr. Steele with 12 percent of the black vote; 23 percent were undecided.

The poll of 400 black registered voters was conducted from Oct. 11 to 13 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

A Baltimore Sun poll showed Mr. Steele with 23 percent of the black vote; Survey USA has shown him gaining as much as 33 percent of the black vote; and an internal Democratic poll in March showed Mr. Steele with 16 percent.

“We don’t need polls to tell us that a large majority of African-Americans are frustrated with President Bush and the direction he’s taking our nation,” Cardin campaign spokesman Oren Shur said. “Michael Steele will support the same failed Bush policies, and everyone knows it.”

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