(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-03-19 09:20

Barack Obama's quest to become the first African-American president is being run without the financial support of much of the black corporate elite.

Less than one-third of the 191 black members of the boards of the largest 250 US companies have contributed to the Illinois senator's campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. The list of board members was compiled by Black Enterprise magazine.

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks during a town hall meeting at the Community College of Beaver County in Monaca, Pennsylvania March 17, 2008. [Agencies]

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who is backing Obama, said the relative lack of support reflects a systemic problem: black corporate leaders haven't yet developed the habit of opening their wallets for candidates. Kirk said he encountered a similar reticence in his failed bid as the Democratic nominee for a Texas US Senate seat in 2002.

"Political giving in the African-American and Hispanic communities is very much in its infancy,'' said Kirk, 53, a partner in the law firm of Vinson & Elkins LLP and board member of Dallas-based Brinker International Inc, Phoenix-based Petsmart Inc and Dallas-based Dean Foods Co.

Maximum Givers

Kirk contributed the maximum $2,300 to Obama in March 2007. Other $2,300 givers include Cleve Killingsworth, chairman of Boston-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts; and Linda Johnson Rice, president of Chicago-based Johnson Publishing Co, the publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines.

Many others, though, are sitting out the race. Of the corporate board members on the list, 62 contributed to Obama and 30 to his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. Some gave to both candidates.

Ronald Walters, a professor of government and politics and director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland in College Park, said many corporate board members aren't willing to give to a "change'' candidate such as Obama, 46.

"To the extent they're not Republican, they have been part of the establishment wing of the Democratic Party, not so much a part of the change wing,'' said Walters, a deputy campaign manager for Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential run.

Clinton Ties

Some prominent black corporate directors have long ties to Clinton, 60. These include Vernon Jordan, senior managing director at New York-based Lazard Capital Markets Ltd., and Rodney Slater, a former transportation secretary who is now a partner in the Washington law-lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLP.

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