As Democrats Fight Stadium, Some Blacks Buck the Trend

[JI7]

<It was an unlikely scene: The Rev. Al Sharpton stood on the steps of City Hall yesterday and endorsed the proposed West Side stadium for the Jets - a pet project of the Republican mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and a prime target of the mayor's Democratic challengers.

But Mr. Sharpton is just the latest to join a long list of prominent black Democrats supporting the stadium project. The growth of that list is confounding many fellow Democratic leaders, who have for so long counted on the allegiance of African-Americans in their major battles.

Behind the divide is a belief among many black leaders that the city's construction industry has for too long excluded black contractors and workers from major projects - a pattern the Jets organization has vowed to reverse if it builds its stadium.

Mr. Sharpton and several other black Democratic leaders who support the project said the need for good jobs for African-Americans when so many of them are unemployed must trump party loyalty - even if backing the stadium means opposing every major Democratic candidate for mayor on this central campaign issue.

"We don't always agree in a party," Mr. Sharpton told reporters yesterday. "But I think this is above partisan politics.">


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/nyregion/24stadium.html