Can the black caucus be bipartisan? Republican Gary Franks is still a member of the CBC, but the relationship is tense.

Republican Gary Franks is still a member of the CBC, but the relationship is tense.

It's official Bipartisanship has a place in the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). Before the opening session of Congress, CBC Chairman Rep. Kweisi Mfume (DMd.) persuaded several of the caucus' members to accept the right of Gary Franks, a conservative Republican from Connecticut, to remain a member of the body. In a public meeting with Franks, Mfume asked, and then answered, a vital political question: "Can the Congressional Black Caucus accommodate diversity and plurality? It must. And as long as I am chair, it will."

But the lingering question that CBC constituents - most of whom live far outside the District of Columbia - did not hear was, "Why had the most powerful group of African-American legislators even considered ousting one of its own?"

The answer is personal, ideological and political. Franks, who represents Connecticut's fifth district, is the least liberal member of his state's three-person Republican delegation. In 1992, the American for Democratic Action (ADA), a liberal legislative interest group, gave Franks a 20% positive rating for his positions. The same year, the American Conservative Union (ACU) gave him an 88% positive rating. Last year, by contrast, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the ADA's recently elected president and CBC member, received a 95% ADA rating, while the ACU gave him a 0% rating (see chart).

Yet Franks' CBC colleagues did not attack him just because he was a loyal Republican voting the party line. Franks' detractors were livid about his allegedly historically blasphemous and racially traitorous views on civil rights. Their fury grew out of his opposition to the section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that created majority-minority congressional district. Franks, who represent a 90% white district, criticized this section publicly. Then, following the Supreme Court ruling on Shaw v. Reno - which attacked new majority-minority district - the introduced legislation to bar "intentional creation" of new district based mainly on color or ethnic status.

Two of Franks' main opponents, freshman representative Cleo Fields (D-La) and Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), went ballistic over this affront. This is not surprising, since they and all of the new southern CBC members were elected in 1992 from freshly drawn black majority districts. then, Rep. William L. Clay (D-Mo.) wrote a long open letter to Franks suggesting that the resign immediately.

By that time, Franks has been excluded from some CBC meetings, while other forums were held without his knowledge. This led him to question publicly what he received for his $5,000 CBC dues. The Washington press corps picked up the story and Franks' constituent rallied around him.

Then, Rep. Mfume hammered out a fair, if time-consuming, solution. In the future, the CBC Democratic caucus will hold private meetings, debating and voting on policies. Then decisions will be debated again, with a second voted by the full CBC, including Franks.

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