Black voters may sway 20 House races in Nov. vote

[WI_DEM]

(edited for copyright purpose proud patriot moderator Democratic Underground)


BOWIE, Md. — On the corner of Collington Road and Route 301, a bright blue poster screams the Democratic Party’s wishful thinking at passing cars: “We’ve got your back President Obama.”

The poster, not quite big enough to qualify as a billboard, reflects an unspoken bargain between Obama and black voters: He asks, they deliver.

Last week, Obama asked.

Polls indicate many minority voters are discouraged and won’t turn out Nov. 2 as they did for Obama two years ago, yet a solid showing among blacks could still swing several House, Senate and gubernatorial races, according to some analysts.

Black voters are “strategically located” to impact as many as 20 House races, mostly in Southern states, explained David Bositis, a senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who has analyzed the black electorate for more than two decades. They also could sway more than a dozen Senate and governor’s races, Bositis said.

“It’s not something where the Democrats and the candidates are going to be out there yelling, ‘We want the black vote,’” Bositis said. “They’re going to work through the black churches, the black media.”

Bositis said this election could echo midterm elections in 1986, when significant black turnout helped Democrats gain House seats and take control of the Senate, and again in 1998, when Democrats picked up governorships in Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia.

Both of those elections followed events that resonated with black voters: Jesse Jackson’s historic presidential campaign in 1984 and the GOP effort in 1998 to impeach then-President Bill Clinton.

Back then, congressional Republicans “were attacking Bill Clinton just like they are attacking Obama right now,” Bositis notes. “And Obama is more popular with African-Americans than Clinton was.”

While many Democrats are distancing themselves from Obama, the party’s approach with black voters is to make the election about the president and his agenda.

(snip)
http://www.wral.com/news/political/story/8450711/

[simmonsj811]

1. KICK!!!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!:kick: :kick: :fistbump: WE GOT YO BACK!

[pstokely]

2. But they don't have landlines

They've never been polled

[Ter]

39. "They?"

WTF...

[BootinUp]

3. I am crossing my fingers

this strategy pays off. It SHOULD dammit.

[CBR]

4. We overlook this constituency on here big time. nt

[pstokely]

5. So do the pollers

nt

[AspenRose]

8. FYI

http://www.timwise.org/2010/08/which-voters-were-key-to-the-obama-victory-interesting-new-analysis-and-its-implications/

[CBR]

10. Thank you very much!

I just believe that in discussion, black voters are taken for granted as the strongest Dem constituency. I do not think it is wise how we are currently approaching this issue.

[craigmatic]

20. Nice post and very true.

[Kdillard]

6. Fingers crossed everyone delivers.

[AspenRose]

7. I predict massive attempts to disenfranchise the vote

Black voters and college kids. Just watch.

I do like the "got your back" thing. Hope that catches on with the rest of the Democratic contingency. Works as well as "Fired up! Ready to go!"

[elleng]

9. Very nice, but Maryland is NOT a Southern State,

and Bowie is NOT in an endangered District!

http://progressivemaryland.org/page.php?id=2378

The point of the OP is valid, of course.

[ej510]

11. Yes it is according to the Mason-Dixon line.

Maryland is very much a Southern State.

[elleng]

12. Yea, but I live here, and it ain't!!!

(Thanks for the academic/historic input, tho!)

[AspenRose]

13. Depends on where in Maryland you are.

In my experience western MD near WV, and places outside Annapolis have southern tendencies. Probably more accurate to call them rural demographic tendencies instead of southern ones.

But yeah, in having a discussion with friends about the difference between Washington DC and Baltimore, the general concensus was that Baltimore was more northern and DC was more southern.

[elleng]

15. I'm here and there! Now, visiting best friend in Silver Spring,

Van Hollen Rep. Actually live in Hagerstown, 60 miles NW of DC, approaching WV, repug rep, and Dems barely running in opposition, but NOT Southern-like there. In fact, MUCH inter-racial/demographic harmony in daily life there. Prefer 'rural' to 'southern,' tho Ha'town a 'small city,' or large town, not really rural.

So nothing's simple!

[KingFlorez]

14. The census bereau classifies it as Southern

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf

Parts of Maryland do have a Southern character, while others seem more Northern, sort of like Florida and Virginia.

[oswaldactedalone]

16. Does this thread go to the top if I post on it?

nm

[Pirate Smile]

18. Yes. It kicks it to the top of GD: Presidency.

[Phx_Dem]

17. "We've Got Your Back." I like it.

:applause:

[Spazito]

19. Good OP!

Very interesting read.

[Number23]

21. I love how quiet every OP related to black people is on DU

We must not be whining enough. We need to complain more! Maybe that way we'll get more attention! :rofl:

Thanks for posting.

[vaberella]

23. Meh...

It's always quiet until they're ready to blame us for something. Remember the prop 8 fiasco. Of course it was majority Blacks who are anti-gay rights, as though there are no Blacks who are gay. I ended up leaving DU then. When the facts came out it was otherwise--we barely got an apology. Not to be funny, but at times I'm not sure if this site is as open minded it as it claims.

[Number23]

24. You got it, vab.

It's always quiet until they're ready to blame us for something.

Yep. Lovely examples of that type of blame going on in some of the "education" threads even as we speak.

[vaberella]

22. The Great Black Hope...who'd a thunk it. n/t

[Jennicut]

38. Oh, we love you vaberella. At least, I do.

:) I happen to have voted for Obama merely because I liked him. Shocking, isn't? And I am a white woman.

I haven't been around as much lately since I have been student-teaching (arggg...too busy to barely go on DU!). It all ends in December I keep telling myself. No more 3 lesson plans a week to write, put together and conduct for 3 and 4 year olds.

[Beacool]

25. I hope that AA vote for Democrats because they stand for policies that help working people

and not just because Obama happens to be AA. By the same token, I wouldn't want a white candidate to expect all white people to vote for him/her merely due to his/her race. I would find that insulting.

;(

[Number23]

26. Give it a rest, please.

[CBR]

27. ...

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

28. They stand with him the same way they stood with Bill Clinton watered down Democratic

policies and all. I do find your idiotic posts offensive though.

x( :( ;) :eyes:

[Beacool]

30. No more watered down than what we have right now.

;-)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

36. So fucking what. That's exactly the point. I have never in my life seen anybody

so obsessed with a goddamn politician as you are. It's really creepy. ;) Right back at 'cha.

[vaberella]

29. That was a real jerk thing to say. You've insulted all Black people on DU and in the US.

Stupidity is obviously not relegated to Republicans and the far right wing. You're suggesting that we voted for him b/c he's Black. Why did we vote for so many other White Democratic Presidents...they weren't Black. Ugh...such a jerk.

[Beacool]

31. That's not what I suggested.

I hope that AA Democrats vote for Democrats this midterm election because they are Democrats, not because we have an AA president, as the article seems to suggest.

[Dawson Leery]

41. I understand you completely.

The PC cowards are out in force.

[Beacool]

44. Thank you.

People are individuals and should think for themselves and vote according to their conscience and personal beliefs. I don't think that anyone should be expected to vote a specific way due to their race, gender or religion. I abhor that the Tea Partiers try to appeal to whites by claiming that they want "their country back" and I don't much care when the left does the same, but in reverse.

[Spazito]

32. Wow....just wow....

:thumbsdown:

[CakeGrrl]

33. Why don't you ask them all? We want a full report!

:rofl:

Sorry, but we remember your shtick from the primaries. Hand-wringing over fear of black solidarity - redux.

Hoo boy!

[Beacool]

34. I don't like it when politicians expect groups to vote as one.

I give people more credit than that. I would find it offensive if a woman expected me to vote for her just because we are of the same gender. For example, I would rather not vote at all than vote for Palin and the crop of RW women that have cropped up this election season.

[CakeGrrl]

35. The President isn't doing this on the basis of race

despite your obsessive need to ascribe the worst motives to everything he does. And it speaks more about your attitude in putting forth your "concerns".

This is about GOTV in a midterm off-year, when a significant number of voters tend not to go to the polls. But you probably know better and profess otherwise.

[Whisp]

40. lots of us women were called traitors for not supporting Hillary

so rewrite that history somewhere where there are people with no memories.

you are offensive

[vaberella]

43. Which politician expected.

Not those in the Democrat Party. You are the one that suggested Blacks voted as one based on Obama's skin color.

[CakeGrrl]

45. And she knows better, since it was the CBC who had Clinton's back

unwaveringly during the impeachment crap while a lot of other Dems, including his own running mate, backed away.

This is just another dig at the horrid car salesman who stole the presidency from her heroine Hillary.

:crazy:

[blogslut]

37. And the push to suppress the vote is underway

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/lawyers_group_with_close_ties_to_rnc_features_para.php?ref=fpb

[David Zephyr]

42. I believe this.

And thank you, WI_DEM, for posting this. K&R. :)