http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/9109253.htmBoxing promoter Don King stumps for Bush in Cleveland
Associated Press
CLEVELAND - President Bush is now officially ready to rumble: Flamboyant boxing promoter Don King is taking his corner in Cleveland.
King was in town Thursday for a re-election rally for Bush. King also was scheduled to meet with members of the Urban League and attend a gathering at Holy Trinity Baptist Church.
Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jeanette Bradley, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams also were expected to be on hand.
"I am for whoever is for the American people, black and white," King said.
The promoter known for his silver spiky hair is traveling with Gillespie as part of the committee's pro-Bush "Economic Empowerment" tour aimed at black voters. The tour has stopped in Brooklyn, N.Y., Detroit and Philadelphia.
"Don King is a great friend. He is a very successful businessman and promoter of boxing, and of the president," Gillespie said. "He is helping us increase our share of the African-American vote and make gains in the African-American community."
King said he wants to help Bush get a greater share of the black vote than in 2000, when Democrat Al Gore got 90 percent to Bush's 9 percent.
During a television appearance before the rally, King wore a red, white and blue denim jacked adorned with Bush buttons and red and white sequins stripes.
King said he was pleased with Bush's selection of minorities in his administration, including U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who are both black.
"He's been reaching out. We cannot afford not to be with him," King said.
King said minorities shouldn't assume they have to vote Democratic.
Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden referred questions to the RNC.
King was convicted in the 1967 beating death of a man who owed him money and spent nearly four years in prison. In 1954, he killed a man who was robbing a numbers house he operated in Cleveland, but it was ruled self-defense.
He's also beaten tax evasion and fraud charges, faced numerous lawsuits from boxers and their handlers and endured three grand jury investigations and an FBI sting operation.
King calls himself a "Republocrat" but said he is currently registered as a Republican. He hosted a fund-raiser for the RNC in March and lent his voice and likeness to a cartoon on the RNC Web site that pokes fun at Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, D-Ohio, said blacks are worse off under Bush, citing Head Start cuts, unemployment and other issues. Tubbs-Jones is working with Kerry's campaign.
"Ed Gillespie trying to convince African Americans that the nation is better under George Bush is the height of absurdity," she said. "People in Cleveland are smart enough to know that Ed Gillespie, George Bush and the Republican Party mean bad news for our communities and neighborhoods."