ICT: 2012 Presidential Candidates Yet to Campaign in Indian Country

Meant to post this last week….

Here. An excerpt:

In 2012, Native Americans across the land are wondering where on Earth—or in America, at least—the outreach has been from the presidential campaigns. For an election that is forecasted to be quite close—closer by the day, according to the most recent polls—in battleground states where Native populations, though comparatively small, could tip the scale. “This will probably be a very close election, and neither campaign should ignore any group of voters, especially one that is reliably supportive,” says Daniel McCool, a political science professor at the University of Utah and co-author of the 2007 book Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote.

Obama realized the opportunity early on in 2008, but Indian votes appear to be less important to him this time around. As of June 14, his Chicago camp hadn’t formally named an official Native vote coordinator or hierarchy, while operations to court African-American, Latino, Asian, Jewish, gay, and women voters were already established. His campaign website in 2008 had many Native blog posts and tribal endorsements. This year, nothing yet.

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