The Democratic primaries have been notably unriven by issues of race or divisions along racial lines. Driven by a desire to find the strongest candidate to defeat President Bush and unmoved by the protest candidacy of the Rev. Al Sharpton, black voters have been, to an even greater extent than white voters, coalescing around Sen. John F. Kerry, a candidate without a history of strong connections in the African-American community, as their party's likely nominee.
"Good things are happening for the Democrats," said Jeremy Mayer, a political scientist at George Mason University who believes the unity and lack of obvious controversy on issues of race bodes well for the party's prospects in the fall. "Black Democrats, like many other Democrats, have just decided, 'We must beat Bush,'" said Mayer, the author of "Running on Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns, 1960-2000."
But while it seems a fait accompli that Kerry or any Democrat would trounce Bush with African-American voters -- among Republican presidential candidates, only Barry Goldwater in 1964 did less well with blacks than Bush in 2000 -- it remains to be seen whether black voters in the fall will turn out in the large numbers Democrats depend on, for a candidate who right now is a mostly unknown quantity.
And at some point, you may want to glance over Jonathan Tilove's Newhouse News article "Blacks Line Up Behind 'Electable' Kerry Because 'We've Got to Get Rid of Bush'"
posted in articles on February 22, 2004 10:54 PM | t (0)
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