Two dozen black business people gave Rep. Ben Cardin a piece of their mind Tuesday about their problems with federal and state set-aside programs for minority businesses.
It was a chance for Cardin, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate, to tout his own record in helping minorities win government contracts, and an opportunity for a few black business people to take shots at the Ehrlich-Steele administration. Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the likely Republican Senate nominee, has played a visible role in revamping the Minority Business Enterprise program.
“The growth opportunities will be with small companies,” Cardin said. “We need to do a better job” in helping small businesses gain government work, especially in the growing Defense Department budget.
Wayne Frazier, president of the Maryland-Washington Minority Contractors Association, endorsed Cardin for Senate over his Morgan State University classmate, former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, whom he called “a wonderful man” who “cannot win.” He said he was “extremely nervous” about the Cardin endorsement. “I figured folks would consider me a sellout once again,” Frazier said.
Frazier said he made “a big mistake” supporting Robert Ehrlich for governor in 2002. Ehrlich is not providing “the support that is needed from the top” on minority business, he said. He suggested that the statistics showing increased statecontracts for minority are “all white women businesses.”
Arnold Jolivet of the American Minority Contractors Association told Cardin, “Other women are getting rich off this program, and we can?t buy a contract for African-American women. People are afraid to talk about it.”
Sharon Pinder, Ehrlich?s special secretary for minority affairs, who heads the MBE program, said Frazier “obviously doesn?t have the facts,” which show that actual payments to minority contractors have gone up under Ehrlich. Previous administrations only counted awards made, not actual work done by minorities and paid for, leading to inflated figures.
State Republican Party Chairman John Kane was quick to pounce. “Ben Cardin has a long record of supporting costly regulations that kill business growth and strain small-business profits,” Kane said.
