This is another argument that Dean supporters like to use. Yet there is little evidence to back it up. I'm certain that Dean has work to do in the minority community and to his credit he has been doing extensive reaching out.
It has paid off in high profile endorsements from such influential African-American leaders as Jesse Jackson, Jr., Major Owens, Sheila Jackson-Lee (the vice-chair of the CBC) Elijah Cummings (Chair of the CBC) among others. Dean has also been endorsed by 18 of 21 members of the black majority DC City Council.
The first real test of how Dean can do with African-Americans will be when South Carolina votes. The recent Pew Poll of voter sentiment in South Carolina has some intersting results.
Pew has Edwards leading with 16% with several candidates very closely crunched for the follow up spot: Clark 11%, Gephardt 10%, Lieberman 9%, Sharpton 8%, Dean 7%, Kerry 3%, Braun 2%, and Kucinich 1%. 33% are undecided.
That is the overall totals now here are how the leading candidates do among white and black voters
Edwards 19% (w) 13% (b)
Clark 14% (w) 6% (b)
Gep 9% (w) 11% (b)
Lieberman 11% (w) 7% (b)
Sharpton 2% (w) 15% (b)
Dean 8% (w) 6% (b)
Kerry 4% (w) 1% (b)
Braun 1% (w) 4% (b)
Among black voters in SC Sharpton leads, but barely with 15% and Edwards is close behind with 13%. Gep attracts 11%, Lieberman 7% and Clark and Dean both get 6%. Braun 4% and Kerry 1% with Kucinich not registering.
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=198What does this tell us? That nobody has a lock on the African-American vote at this time. The two African-American candidates in the race themselves attract under 20% of the black vote. Dean is doing as well with African-Americans as Gen. Clark and Lieberman and only slightly less well than Gephardt.
It is also interesting that Dean does about as well with African-Americans in SC as he does with whites. 8% support among whites and 6% with black voters.
*Besides this recent polling out of Maryland indicates that Dean has a 2-1 lead among democrats in the primary in a state where a significant minority of state Democratic primary voters are African-American.
*Dean also leads among Democratic primary voters in Virginia which has a strong minority population. You have to imagine that a good share of these voters are black.
*Dean leads for the DC primary which is majority African-American. According to a recent poll (of the four candidates who will be on ballot for that primary) Dean leads Sharpton 45-11 percent.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1103/111800.html*Dean has been endorsed by one of the biggest unions which represent minority employees: The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)and this came after ballots of employees indicated that he was the top choice of the rank and file.
Dean has work to do in the minority community and he is doing it. But from what it looks like to me, no major candidate has yet struck a deep chord with African-Americans the way Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton did. But in the end, I feel confident that our nominee whether it is Dean or someone else will get strong backing among African-Americans against one of the most anti-minority presidents ever. But he will have to work for it, and Howard Dean most certainly is.
by the way here is an excellent site:
http://www.africanamericansfordean.com/blog/
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