Friday, August 29, 2008

Black Voters and Down Ballot Candidates

In our poll this week 87% of African Americans identified themselves as Democrats, and 84% said they supported Barack Obama.

The rest of the Democratic ticket? Not so much at this point:

Bev Perdue gets 72% of the black vote. Besides her almost everyone gets between 60-65% of the black vote, including Kay Hagan with 61%. Janet Cowell and Walter Dalton get even less at 55 and 49% respectively.

It's not that black voters are voting Republican for these offices- they just say they're undecided. But that brings up a real point- are all the folks coming out to vote for the first time this year just going to vote for Barack Obama, or will they vote the rest of the ballot as well? Down ballot Democratic candidates would do themselves well not just to assume that they will.

That means investing in robo calls and direct mail targeted at black voters, as well as advertising on black radio. The Perdue campaign did a tremendous job of this in the primary, and our polling indicated that she won by a large margin with supporters of Obama.

It also wouldn't hurt if the North Carolina Democratic Party could get Obama himself to record a couple robo calls to go out during early voting to black voters reminding them to make sure they vote the entire Democratic ticket.

I'm sure the down ballot candidates will do much better with black voters than the polling is showing right now, but best not to take them for granted.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why should African-American voters cast a straight Democratic ticket?

What have the down ballot Democrats done to show they understand issues that affect minorities?

The Democrats would do well to lose the attitude that they are entitiled to the African-American vote no matter what. African-Americans would be well served to leave down ballot candidates off the the ballot if they don't show the understand minority issues. Democrats need to get the message the African-American vote can't be taken for granted.

Shaun said...

Robo calls do not work. In fact according to Green and Gerber of Yale, they 'have a perfect record of never having worked".

As I testified at the US. Senate these calls are an epidemic and are invading the privacy of All American Voters.

Our members are taking a stand and saying enough is enough at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org.

Here is a quote from a member recently:

"I'm a shift worker, working variable shifts. I depend on my sleep to be able to do my job safely and efficiently. I'm a locomotive engineer. Imagine the disaster were I to fall asleep, operating a freight train carrying hazardous materials in your neighborhood, due to fatigue from being awoken in my middle of the night on a continuous basis during election season. Please stop.."

Regards,

Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org

Ranjit said...

Folks,

They will vote all the way down the ticket. After this kind of corruption in state government for the last 2 years, how do you think, democrats are still winning the elections in the North carolina state legislature?

Because of the obama's nomination, there will be again a big democratic win in state government. GOP in north carolina under Linda Davis is doing better but still they need to go to the next level to expose the corruption in north carolina state government.

 
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