Simkins PAC? Never heard of it.

My friend, Sharon Hightower with Guilford County Unity Effort, faxed me a copy of the Simkins PAC endorsements. Named after the late African-American dentist Dr. George C. Simkins Jr., the committee is comprised of black elected officials in Greensboro, and its endorsements are intended to influence the vote in the black community.

Hightower wanted me to come take a picture of her tearing the endorsement list up and tossing it in the trash.

I’m beginning to wonder: How much sway does the Simkins PAC’s endorsement list hold in the black community? And is a generational shift taking place in which younger voters are less likely than their parents to follow the lead of the black elected officials who decide which candidates get endorsed? And do the Simkins PAC endorsements swing enough votes to decide any of the contests? A more philosophical question is whether racial bloc voting makes sense in a time when class differences cut across the black community, and ideological differences divide and mutate throughout all racial and ethnic groups?

Out of curiosity, I asked my 32-year-old African-American girlfriend, who votes in a precinct whose registered voters are 85.5 percent black, what she thought about the Simkins PAC. To my surprise, she said she had never heard of it. She checked with her mother, who used to follow the PAC’s endorsements but doesn’t so much anymore, and with her uncle, who doesn’t get the endorsements and would probably throw them away if he did. She also asked her African-American coworkers at Moses Cone hospital, all 23 years old and younger, if they had heard of the Simkins PAC. None had.

For what it’s worth, here’s who the PAC is endorsing this year.

No surprises at the top of the ticket:

“We have a chance to make history by electing the first African American to the presidency of the United States of America. Barack Obama’s superior qualifications have propelled him to the position of standard bearer for the Democratic Party. We must now do our part and vote!”

And not much legwork on the US Senate race, the three congressional races or the two contested county commission races:

“For President Obama to have a successful administration and to begin resolving the problems and heal the wounds of the last eight years, he will need Democratic support on the national as well as local levels. Vote straight Democrat!

And here are the rest of the individual endorsements:

NC Supreme Court justice: Suzanne Reynolds
NC Court of Appeals judges: John C. Martin, Jim Wynn, Kristin Ruth, Cheri Beasley, Linda Stephens and Bob Hunter
District Court judge, District 18: Sherry Fowler Alloway, Susan Bray, Tabatha Holliday, Angela Foster, Michelle Fletcher, Robbie Hassell, Patrice Hinnant, Pete Hunter, Betty Brown, Polly Sizemore, Joseph Turner and Teresa Vincent
Guilford County School Board, at large: “Both candidates are well qualified. You may vote for either one.” [YES! Weekly notes both candidates in this county-wide race are African American; Sandra Alexander lives in Greensboro, while Michael McKinney lives in High Point.]
Guilford County School Board, District 1: J. Carlvena Foster [YES! Weekly notes that this is an uncontested race.]
Guilford County School Board, District 3: Darlene Garrett [YES! Weekly notes that only 9.1 percent of registered voters in this district are African American.]
Guilford County School Board, District 5: Paul Daniels [YES! Weekly notes that this is an uncontested race.]
Guilford County School Board, District 7: Kris Cooke [YES! Weekly notes that this is an uncontested race.]
Guilford County School Board, District 9: Amos Quick III [YES! Weekly notes that this is an uncontested race.]
Soil & water district supervisor: Herb Hendrickson
Guilford County 1/4-cent sales tax: “Vote against”
Greensboro transportation bonds:: “Yes”
Greensboro War Memorial Auditorium bonds:: “Yes”
Greensboro parks and recreation bonds: “Yes.”
Greensboro housing bonds: “Yes.”