TICKERTAPE

Jet, Dec 4, 2000 by Simeon Booker

CONFIDENTIAL: Using the Black vote as a main cog in the recent national election, the Democrats amassed a heavy vote among minorities, women, and labor-oriented groupings, but the effort failed to gain a majority on Capitol Hill and three committee chairmanships which could have been held by ranking Black Reps.

Charles Rangel, John Conyers and Julian Dixon, in addition to almost 15 sub-committee chair positions. However, across the aisle, Oklahoma's Black Republican congressman, Rep. J.C. Watts, the only Black GOPer in the House, played a prominent role during the first post-election House session. The 38 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) now must determine whether they must form a special voting bloc to increase political power. When the session ends, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson and Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will vie to succeed Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina as head of the CBC, which may hold the key to minority unity on the Hill. Even when the plight of many Black Florida voters being denied the ballot and mistreated at polling places on Election Day was being highlighted, leaders didn't picture the state as being of "Old South" vintage. Angle: Two of the judges on the state's seven-member Supreme Court are Black-Peggie Quince and Leander Shaw ... One of the last Clinton sub-cabineteers was Shirley Watkins, confirmed by the Senate as an Agriculture Department undersecretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services. She'll supervise employees and two agencies from a budget of $35 billion ... For his 75th birthday, friends surprised U.S. Ambassador to Gambia George Haley with a photo album at an embassy reception. Country officials described the brother of Roots author Alex Haley as "a true Friend."