Dem Hopefuls Court Black Vote

(CBS)  Six of the Democrats running for president were expected to court black voters Monday at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Sens. Bob Graham, John Edwards and John Kerry along with former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton were scheduled for an afternoon forum, reports CBS News' Michael Hibblen.

Democratic candidates who are not expected by NAACP officials to attend include Sen. Joseph Lieberman, and Reps. Richard Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich.

Neither President Bush nor his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, planned to attend the convention.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said Saturday the president's busy schedule prevents him from accepting all the invitations he receives. The governor was unable to attend because of a legislative session in Tallahassee, his spokesman said. Neither attend the 2002 or 2003 meetings.

In his keynote speech, NAACP executive director Julian Bond said the group intended "to uproot the bigger 'Bush' in 2004."

"It's hard to imagine someone wanting the president to attend this event making comments of this nature," White House spokesman Taylor Gross said.

The emphasis Monday was on "forum," not debate.

"This is not a debate; the candidates didn't want a debate, I don't know why," said Bond. "I think you're supposed to debate. I've run for office seven times and debated each time I ran. It's just part of the course, but they wanted a forum so we've provided them with a forum."

Bond and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume hope the forum will help NAACP members differentiate between the candidates.

"We certainly hope that they're not all here saying the same thing in the same way at the same time," said Mfume. "The one thing that sets candidates apart is not just how they look and what they say: It's their passion and commitment on certain issues."

Bond criticized the Bush brothers for challenging race-conscious admissions in colleges, and praised the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the use of race as a factor in university admissions policies.

The NAACP leader said the decision "gave legal sanction to what we knew to be morally, socially, and educationally correct." He urged states that have abandoned affirmative action policies to "come back into the Union."

The court ruled against the use of a point-based system for enrollment decisions, which was used at the University of Michigan. The Bush administration filed one of the briefs opposing the policy.

"The court struck down the points but upheld the principle," Bond said Sunday. "Since the opponents kept telling us that this was all about principle, I'd say we won!"

Bond said he believed affirmative action policies will continue to be challenged. He also promised the civil rights group would be watching states that no longer use affirmative action policies, including Florida, to monitor their commitment to achieving diversity.

Bond criticized the Florida governor for his One Florida program, under which state universities can no longer consider race or gender in admissions decisions. High school students are instead guaranteed admission if they are in the top 20 percent of their graduating class.

Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for the governor, said minority enrollment and student achievement are rising under the One Florida program.

"The results speak for themselves," DiPietre said. "Under the governor's leadership and One Florida, minority students in colleges and universities are far outpacing their counterparts in other states."