change css of a shape.

I feel that this is a stupid question but I cant seem to change the color of my ellipse that is inside of a symbol.

sym.getSymbol("button").$("btnBase").hide();                             // WORKS

sym.getSymbol("button").$("btnBase").css("color", "#000000");   // DOES NOT WORK

So my click event is good, and I am calling the correct object but am screwing up in the css.

Thanks,

-Ryan