Where’s the diversity?

CHICAGO – That historically all-white club known as the U.S. Senate is likely to lose what little diversity it has after November’s elections.

Two white men, Illinois treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and five-term Rep. Mark Kirk, will compete for President Obama’s former seat in Illinois, now held by Roland Burris, the chamber’s lone African-American. Appointed by the scandal-tainted former governor, Burris won’t be seeking a full term.

In contests in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, black candidates face daunting challenges to joining the august body, from difficulty raising cash to lack of name recognition to formidable rivals.

Blacks comprise 12.2 percent of the nation’s population, but you wouldn’t know it in the 100-member Senate. Come next year, the total number could add up to zero.

“It certainly is not a desirable state of affairs,” said David Bositis, a senior political analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Bositis noted that blacks don’t make up the majority population in any state, and in states where there are large numbers of blacks, as in the South, there are racial divisions that make getting elected difficult.

Carol Swain, a Vanderbilt University political science and law professor, said that party leaders needed to be committed to a diversified legislative body and that qualified black candidates with money must step up to try to get elected.

“One of the reasons why it’s difficult for minorities, especially blacks, to win statewide is the cost of campaigns,” she said. “It takes millions of dollars to run a Senate campaign.”

On Tuesday, neither black challengers in the Illinois’ primary – Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson, a Democrat, and little-known former suburban Chicago alderman John Arrington, a Republican – could compete against the better-funded and better-known candidates who captured the major party nominations.

Kirk won the GOP nomination, and Giannoulias walked away with the Democratic nod. Both are white.

Burris was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich after Blagojevich was arrested for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s seat.

Obama’s former seat is now a prime takeover target for Republicans. The attention on it has intensified since the GOP’s upset win in Massachusetts last month claimed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat.