As the country listened to the taped recording of Donald Sterling racist rant, it buckled under the weight of his claims. As I wrote my story I didn't even think to see what political party has was tied into. It was so offensive that it shook the current and retired NBA players to the core and everyone across the political spectrum was aghast. Everyone except the NRO apparently. They immediately tried to cast Donald as a Democrat for no other purpose I guess then to make it appear that Democrats are just as racist as Republicans.
L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, whom commentators tried to tie to the Republican party immediately after his alleged racist statements became public, has in fact only given money to Democratic candidates, according to campaign-contribution records.
Tim Cavanaugh was saying, fear not Republicans, this time you're off the hook in the racist department. Unfortunately that happens to not be true. Michael Hiltzik tweeted that he is a registered republican.
What makes anyone think Donald Sterling is a Democrat? LA County records show him registered Republican since 1998. #DonaldSterling
— Michael Hiltzik (@hiltzikm) April 28, 2014
Mother Jones did followed up with more: Donald Sterling Is a Registered Republican
Well, according to multiple conservative media outlets, yes, it does matter. On Sunday,National Review ran a blog post originally titled, "Racist Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Is a Democrat." The post breathlessly noted a handful of contributions he made in the early 1990s to Democratic politicians, including California politician Gray Davis and Sen. Bill Bradley, who had played in the NBA. (Sterling has owned his NBA team since the early 1980s.) The headline has since been changed to "Racist Clippers Owner Donald Sterling Has Only Contributed to Democrats," with an update reading, "his official party affiliation is not known." Still, the Donald-Sterling-Is-a-Democrat meme already took hold within right-wing media:
"Report: Clippers Owner Caught In Racist Rant Is A Democratic Donor" — Fox Nation.
"NBA Sterling is a Democrat..." — Matt Drudge.
"Race Hate Spewing Clippers Owner Is Democratic Donor" — the Daily Caller.
"Media Ignoring Dem Donations of LA Clippers' Owner, Allegedly Caught on Tape in Race-Based Rant" — NewsBusters.
"LA Clippers Owner Donald Sterling is a Racist Democrat" — the Tea Party News Network.
Politico piggy-backed on this flood of Sterling-triggered liberal-shaming with a softer headline: "Donald Sterling made donations to Dems."
--On Sunday, Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times columnist, tweeted that local voter records show Sterling to be a registered Republican "since 1998." We followed up on that, and a search of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's website for Sterling's name, date of birth, and address confirmed that he's registered as a Republican.
I laughed when I saw their correction at the bottom of the article:
Update: An earlier version of this post identified Sterling as a Democrat. Although his political donations appear to have been exclusively to Democrats, a search of the L.A. County Registrar/Record confirms that he is a registered Republican. A Clippers representative did not respond to requests for comment.
The entire post was about Sterling being a democrat so shouldn't they have done just a wee bit better than that?
