African American Voters Shift Support to Obama in latest ABC poll

[flpoljunkie]

African American Voters Shift Support to Obama

By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 5:20 PM

The opening stages of the campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination have produced a noticeable shift in sentiment among African American voters, who little more than a month ago heavily supported New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton but now favor the candidacy of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Few constituencies are more important in Democratic politics than black voters, and the already-intense competition between Clinton and Obama for support among African Americans is one of the most closely watched aspects of the party's nomination battle.

Clinton continues to lead Obama and other rivals in the Democratic nominating contest, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. But her once-sizeable margin over the freshman senator from Illinois was sliced in half during the past month largely because of Obama's growing support among black voters.

<>The latest poll put Clinton at 36 percent, Obama at 24 percent, Gore at 14 percent and Edwards at 12 percent. None of the other Democrats running received more than 3 percent. With Gore removed from the field, Clinton gained ground on Obama, leading the Illinois senator 43 percent to 27 percent. Edwards ran third at 14 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022701030_pf.html