Justus For All

City Journal has an interesting profile of Ken Blackwell, a candidate for the Ohio Governor’s race.

Ken Blackwell has so many people worried because he represents a new political calculus with the power to shake up American politics. For Blackwell is a fiscal and cultural conservative, a true heir of the Reagan revolution, who happens to be black, with the proven power to attract votes from across a startlingly wide spectrum of the electorate. Born in the projects of Cincinnati to a meat-packer who preached the work ethic and a nurse who read to him from the Bible every evening, Blackwell has rejected the victimology of many black activists and opted for a different path, championing school choice, opposing abortion, and staunchly advocating low taxes as a road to prosperity. The 57-year-old is equally comfortable preaching that platform to the black urban voters of Cincinnati as to the white German Americans in Ohio’s rural counties or to the state’s business community.

Blackwell is certainly more socially conservative than I am.  He seems to be a fascinating figure though, and he has the potential to break up the racial blocks that are Democratic strongholds.  That would be a desirable end in itself to me, not primarily because it would help Republicans get elected (although it would certainly do that) but because I think black Democrats are often taken for granted by that party.  Anyway, it is an interesting profile and I think he is someone to watch closely.  Sort of an opposite Obama.