Can Obama spur black allegiance to the GOP?

Jeffery C. Mays, Newark Star-Ledger

- When Tanya Freeman went to vote in the presidential primary, she asked a West Orange poll worker where the Republican polling station was.

The elderly woman leaned into Freeman, an African-American, and whispered: “My God. I just assumed all of your people were Democrats,” Freeman recalled.

Harold Edwards is used to a blank stare when he tells people in Newark he’s a Republican.

“They can’t believe it,” said Edwards, who will be one of a few black delegates to the Republican national convention.

Edwards and Freeman received knowing nods when they shared their stories at a recent meeting of the Concerned Black Republicans of New Jersey in Hillside.

The group, which admits it has been in a slump, has picked an odd time to stage a revival. With the Democratic Party poised to nominate Barack Obama as the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party, the organization has mounted a recruiting drive.

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