NYT,pg1:Gore, Kerry Unite in Search for Black Votes(Bush gain since 2000?)

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THE CONSTITUENCY
Gore and Kerry Unite in Search for Black Votes
By JIM DWYER and JODI WILGOREN

Published: October 25, 2004


....Black voters are crucial for Democrats, and the party has been seeking to galvanize them in record numbers this year. But the urgency, with just over a week left in a breathtakingly close race, is also driven by recent polls showing President Bush's support among African-Americans may be double the 8 percent he won in 2000.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington group that focuses on blacks, attributed the uptick largely to an unusual Republican push in black churches and the party's backing of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

Mr. Kerry's campaign said its own polling did not show such erosion and insisted their candidate would make up for any ground gained by the president with new registrations and a sharp increase in black turnout.

But aides acknowledged that Mr. Kerry, whose home state of Massachusetts is 5 percent black, has struggled to connect with minority audiences in a campaign whose national-security emphasis has often overshadowed domestic issues. "There was a little bit of reluctance because it's not been a campaign that has focused specifically on the needs of urban America," said Mike McCurry, Mr. Kerry's chief spokesman. "They were waiting to see would he talk about their issues, would he go to their places, would he speak with a little bit of soul. I think we're obviously doing that."

But Republicans said they had made inroads by spending more money than ever before on black media and outreach....Mr. Gillespie and Ken Mehlman, Mr. Bush's campaign manager, credited their improved position among blacks in part to the president's "faith-based initiative'' to give religious institutions more of a role in delivering social services. David Bositis of the Joint Center noted that his poll also showed stronger opposition to same-sex marriage and civil unions among blacks than in the population over all....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/politics/campaign/25blacks.html?oref=login