How many GOP delegates were 'bought' with 'faith-based' Federal money

[AirAmFan]

the WH and Federal agencies have been shoveling out since 2001?

I read in Newsday that "168 African-Americans make up 6.7 percent of the delegates, a 98 percent jump from the 85 who attended the party's 2000 convention. The figure surpasses the record set in 1912, when blacks made up 6 percent of the delegates." (From http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-rnc-usrace3008,0,5020169.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines )

I asked myself, what has changed since 2000 to explain a doubling of African-American GOP delegates? Then I noticed that a good number of African-American GOP delegates interviewed by the media identified themselves as clergymen. IMO, "Follow the money" still is the best advice when trying to explain puzzling outcomes in politics. Though I have no evidence about exactly what proportion of the 168 are ministers, I now have a hunch it has to be BIG, thanks to coming across this column by Robyn Blumner from a few months ago.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

From http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/13/Columns/Christian_soldiers_fo.shtml

'Christian soldiers for the Bush campaign

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, Times Perspective Columnist

Published June 13, 2004

President Bush first opens the spigot of public money to churches and other faith-based groups to the tune of OVER A BILLION DOLLARS LAST YEAR, then he knocks on the faith community's door for a political favor....

The re-election campaign is essentially trying to organize a church-based political apparatus, where congregations are a new kind of Chicago-style ward. Houses of worship are irresistible targets for Bush organizers since the churchgoing habits of Americans now predict voting behavior better than almost any other demographic, even more so than gender.... The strategy also trades on the prodigious favors Bush has been doing for the religious community. There are now 10 separate federal agencies with offices devoted to directing tax money to faith-based groups. In a report released in March, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives boasted that in five of those agencies alone, $1.17-billion was awarded to religiously affiliated groups in fiscal year 2003.

Even religious leaders should know there's no free lunch. Government money comes with all sorts of strings, some apparent, some subtle.... As churches are being recruited, Republicans in Congress are doing their part to wave off the IRS. A bill that would allow religious denominations to support political candidates has been slipped into a larger jobs measure in the House. The Safe Harbor for Churches provision would reduce tax penalties for a set number of political endorsements from the pulpit and eliminate them if the endorsement was "unintentional."'