John Nichols: Dean's D.C. votes show he's for real

[dajabr]

By John Nichols
January 15, 2004

While the fact was little noted, voting has finally begun in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. More than 43,000 voters in Washington, D.C., participated in a nonbinding primary Tuesday, and although most of the leading Democratic contenders chose to skip the contest, the results still provided some important insights regarding the race. To wit:

1) Howard Dean's appeal is for real. The former Vermont governor won 43 percent of the vote in a primary that saw a higher turnout than past presidential primary voting in the District of Columbia.

Dean easily outdistanced other candidates who put more time and energy into the D.C. contest. And he showed strength across a city where African-American voters form a substantial majority, offering him an opportunity to counter the claims that he lacks the record and the style to appeal beyond his initial base of support among young, white, middle-class activists. Dean made note of that fact in a call Tuesday night to a gathering of several hundred enthusiastic supporters at the Lucky Bar in northwest Washington. Echoing the Rev. Jesse Jackson's campaign theme from insurgent races for the Democratic nomination in 1984 and 1988, Dean told his cheering backers, "We're going to build a rainbow coalition to take over this country for the people who own it."

--snip--

In D.C., as Dean strategists had hoped, the campaign's much-vaunted volunteer army took up the slack and put on a genuine campaign. Prominent members of the City Council - including Jack Evans, who fought to ensure that voters in the nation's capital would cast the first ballots in this year's presidential race - endorsed Dean. More than 30,000 Dean appeals were mailed to the most likely voters. Blue and white "Dean for President" signs appeared on utility polls and vacant building fronts. Congressional Black Caucus chairman Elijah Cummings, a Democratic representative from neighboring Maryland, headlined a rally that drew several hundred people to a downtown church on the Saturday before the voting. And on Election Day, at many polling places in the city, the only person handing out leaflets was a Dean backer.

More: http://www.madison.com/captimes/opinion/column/nichols/65322.php

Emphasis is of course, mine.

[Mairead]

1. It certainly shows how well the corporatocracy manufactures consent!

When a guy whose policies will do nothing at all for Black people gets 4X% of their activist vote anyhow....

[LuminousX]

2. Yeah, Cummings is such an idiot, he doesn't have a clue

as to what is good for African-Americans or not.

[Mairead]

10. Could be. Or it could be that he's only trying to take care of Cummings

That's what most of the political endorsers are doing, anyhow: quid pro quo.

As to what's good for Black folk...

Black folk pay as much for healthcare as Whites do but aren't given the same level of treatment. This is well-documented. Dean's plan is to do more of the same. That's not good for Black folk.

The military consumes --on several levels of meaning-- a markedly disproportionate number of Black folk. If we look at the photos of those killed in Iraq, we see a large percentage of Black faces, possibly even more than their military representation and certainly far more than their representation in the US population. Dean plans to leave them over there, to kill and be killed, maim and be maimed, and suffer desperate emotional trauma. That's not good for Black folk.

The drugs war is an enormous destroyer of Black and Brown people. It operates on a number of levels, from street killings to vastly disproportionate prison sentences. Dean has no plans to do anything to end the drugs war. That's not good for Black folk.

Dean plans to balance the budget, but not to cut the entitlements of the wealthy. That means he will balance it on the backs of the poor. Black folk are already not at income parity with Whites, which means that they already get fewer services for each tax dollar than Whites do (the wealthy benefit disproportionately from taxes). So Dean's budget-balancing is going to hit Black people harder than Whites. That's not good for Black folk.

So I think it's not that Cummings 'doesn't have a clue' but that he doesn't have a care.

[Freddie Stubbs]

11. Do you also believe that John Conyers doesn't care?

He has also endorsed Dean.

[LuminousX]

13. They prefer to smear good people instead of grant Dean an inch

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Do you also believe that Sheila Jackson-Lee doesn't care?

She has also endorsed Dean.

[Mairead]

15. You guys can try as much empty innuendo as you like, but facts are facts

And the facts are that Dean's policies include no significant benefits for working people, but they do contain plans to continue policies that disproportionately wreck--or end--the lives of people of color.

You can spin til you're all dried out, but no innuendo will make those facts go away. Own up.

[Freddie Stubbs]

16. Dean's policies will bring benefits to all people--regardless of race

Kucinich's lack of support from the minority community (with the exception of a few wealthy entertainers) is quite telling.

[beaconess]

17. Do you know Kucinich's poll numbers in the minority community?

Endorsements are a completely separate issue.

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. Considering his performance in the DC primary earlier this week

They can't be too high.

[Mairead]

20. Sure they will. When you can list and explain them, then let's talk

Until then, all you have is empty words.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. Anti-Crime Initiative

I will devise and support new anti-crime strategies that combine long-term prevention and investment in children with innovative crime-fighting techniques. Serious violent offenders must serve long prison sentences. At the same time, we must fight crime before it occurs through after-school programs for at-risk children, drug treatment, and job training. I favor improved systems to supervise offenders who have been released from prison so that they are less likely to commit new crimes. Aggressive crime prevention is more effective and less costly than building more and more prisons. I will combat racial profiling, and make our justice system more fair and effective.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=policy_statement_cities#

[Freddie Stubbs]

22. Cracking down on predatory lending

I will crack down on predatory lending. Across the country, unscrupulous lenders are persuading people to accept mortgage financing, loans, and credit with unfair and unrealistic terms and enormous hidden costs. This is devastating families and neighborhoods and leading to unprecedented levels of property foreclosure, especially among people of color.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=policy_statement_cities#

[Freddie Stubbs]

23. Investing in Education and Pre-School Programs

I will make a major investment in education and pre-school programs. My Invest for Success initiative will help ensure that young children start school ready to thrive by providing early access to health care, child care, education, and other critical support. All our children deserve a real chance to succeed.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=policy_statement_cities#

[Freddie Stubbs]

24. Ending racial disparities in healthcare

Press for the immediate passage of the Healthcare Equality and Accountability Act of 2003 sponsored by The Congressional Black Caucus, The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and The Native American Caucus. This bill is a road map to making America a healthier nation and I will follow it.
Create the post of Assistant Secretary for Minority Health within the Department of Health and Human Services. The job of the Assistant Secretary for Minority Health would be to not only coordinate all of the federal government's initiatives to eliminate racial health disparities in health, but to remind all Americans that it's their fight, too.
Providing Affordable, Quality Health Care for All Americans

Today, 14 percent of white Americans lack health insurance, but the uninsurance rate among minority Americans has soared to 31 percent. We know that, absent health coverage, the uninsured are less likely to visit doctors and take advantage of the opportunities that insurance provides for preventive care and the diagnosis of illnesses when they're most easily treatable. For lack of health coverage, the uninsured often rely on expensive and ineffective hospital emergency rooms for routine care and are less likely to seek out specialized care when it is required.

The cost of caring for the uninsured, much of it uncompensated, has led many health care providers to abandon minority communities entirely and placed a crushing financial burden on the few which remain.

We have a moral responsibility to do better. And we can.

My plan to extend health insurance to all Americans is based on the lessons I learned as a practicing physician and as a governor. My plan offers health insurance to all uninsured Americans, at well under half the cost of President Bush’s tax cuts. The plan is built on four components:

Start by covering children: The plan calls for extending current programs to every child and young adult under 25 up to three times the poverty level. It will also require employer health plans to extend coverage to dependents up to age 25.

Expand to Families: For those at lower income levels, extend current programs for children to include parents up to 185 percent of the poverty level. For those above that level, allow them to buy into a health plan similar to the plan for government employees, while providing tax credits to keep insurance affordable.

Support Small Businesses: Help small businesses afford coverage by letting them buy into the federal employee look-alike program at reasonable rates.

Send a Message to Large Companies: Without any mandates, the government can still send a strong signal to larger businesses that could afford to but don’t provide coverage by limiting their tax deductions and their government contracts.

My plan is ambitious, but realistic, targeted, and affordable. To extend affordable insurance to all Americans, it takes a consensus-based approach that builds on existing systems and that can pass Congress. It avoids mandates that would create firestorms of opposition and make it impossible to get a plan through Congress.

Training a New Generation of Minority Health Care Professionals

African-American physicians are nearly six times more likely to treat black patients than doctors who aren't and more willing to practice in minority communities and care for Medicaid recipients. But today only 3.9 percent of U.S. physicians are black. Helping minority Americans into health professions isn't only a matter of righting past wrongs, but essential to protecting public health. The Association of American Medical Colleges points out that African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans account for more than 25 percent of our population, but only 14 percent of medical school matriculants. America must do better. We must:

Strengthen affirmative action in higher education.
Expand federal support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other minority serving institutions and increase financial aid for minority students training for health care professions.
Promote "pipeline programs" that foster interest in science and health professions among public school students.
Offer incentives to health profession schools and other graduate training programs to recruit additional minority faculty.
Require accreditation bodies to include more minorities to assure better oversight of health profession schools and graduate training programs.
Support creation of joint labor-management "career ladder" initiatives to train less skilled health care workers for careers in patient care and medical technology.
Require newly trained physicians and other health professionals to be proficient in a language in addition to English and be trained in cultural competency as a condition for their certification and re-certification.
Expanding Research on Minority Health

President Clinton's creation of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities was a milestone in the cause of public health. We must make certain that it does not become an achievement to rest on, but one on which we build.

As President, I'll see to it that decisions related to minority health are based on sound medical science, not politics. We must:

Report health data available to our public health systems related to race and ethnicity on a current basis not several years late.
Demand clinical trials of medical treatments reflect America's racial and ethnic diversity.
Support health promotion and disease prevention programs including physical education for kindergarten through 12th grade in order to reverse the epidemic of obesity.
Require businesses to fully disclose information on hazardous materials they use — and dump — in minority communities.
Invest in state and local public health departments and other agencies that have frontline responsibilities for tracking and responding to disease threats and other health hazards.
Fighting Back Against HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS poses an imminent threat to the lives of millions of Americans, particularly in minority communities. Yet, instead of waging war against this disease, President Bush has gone AWOL. As a physician, I know the importance of prevention and early treatment for medical conditions and as President I will not stand silent while this epidemic continues to claim victims. We must:

Increase funding for care and treatment especially for AIDS related complications.
Promote sensible and comprehensive prevention efforts including the use of condoms, needle exchange programs, accessible testing and progressive education on safe behaviors.
Support research and development of more effective medicines that are less toxic, easier to take, and less expensive.
Renew the fight against AIDS worldwide by fully supporting the needs of the vital Global Fund and urging other nations to do the same.
Restore America's role as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS by appointing key Cabinet and Sub-Cabinet officials who are knowledgeable about and committed to destigmatizing HIV.
Increase and improve access to mental health and substance abuse treatment to prevent people with mental illness and substance abuse problems from being imprisoned and abandoned — the Los Angeles jail now treats more patients than any psychiatric hospital in the country — this must change.
Expand funding for minority health initiatives and Ryan White programs to further the domestic war on HIV/AIDS.
Immigrant health

Legal Immigrants are currently denied many federal government benefits. They are currently subject to a five-year prohibition on access to federal Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). As a result, hard working, tax paying legal immigrants have no safety net when they fall temporarily on hard times and have little access to preventive medicine. This not only affects the immigrants who are directly harmed, it has a ripple effect on the entire society. The federal government must step up to the plate and assist states in providing critical social services to those people legally living, working, and raising their families in our country. At a minimum, we must pass:

The "Immigrant Children’s Health Improvement Act" (ICHIA), which would allow states the option of allowing legal immigrant children and pregnant women to apply for Medicaid and SCHIP.
Honoring Our Nation's Promise to American Indians and Alaska Natives

The health crisis facing American Indians and Alaska Natives is unique, severe and one the federal government must bear ultimate responsibility for creating. Over the course of the last decade death rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives from diabetes, cancer, suicide and injuries rose significantly, yet the Indian Health Service — the only source of health care for many American Indians and Native Alaskans — has lacked the capacity to respond. As President, I will:

Provide incentives necessary for mid-career health professionals and medical to serve as primary care providers on reservations and at urban health clinics serving Native Americans and Alaska natives.
Support the bipartisan effort to elevate the position of Director of the Indian Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services to Assistant Secretary for Indian Health
Significantly increase funding for the Indian Health Service.
Expand research and public education on health issues of particular concern to American Indians and Alaska Natives, including HIV/AIDS, suicide, substance abuse, diabetes, heart disease, fetal alcohol syndrome and domestic violence.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=policy_statement_health_racialdisparities

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Crack down on racial profiling

I condemn the practice of racial profiling. The unjustified use of race in making routine law enforcement decisions such as traffic stops is wrong and unconstitutional. Stereotypes and false generalizations have no place in law enforcement.

Racial profiling is ineffective. Statistics show that racial generalizations do not accurately predict criminal conduct. Profiling is no substitute for good solid police work.

Racial profiling is a prime source of the massive racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Minorities are no more likely than whites to use drugs, but disproportionate law enforcement attention means that minorities are disproportionately arrested, charged and jailed for drug crimes.

The recent Justice Department guidance banning racial profiling is a useful first step, but it falls far short of what is needed:

It applies only to federal law enforcement agencies, not to state and local officers who conduct most street-level enforcement, including traffic stops;
It contains no mechanism for victims of profiling to enforce their rights in court;
It does not require agencies to collect data on the race of the people they stop, an element that experts believe is essential to measure and remedy profiling practices;
It contains an overbroad immigration and national security exception.
The immigration exception is especially unwarranted. Workplace inspections and other discretionary activities have been a significant source of ethnic profiling.

And we can hardly trust John Ashcroft’s Justice Department to define the line between national security activities and routine law enforcement.

As President, I will direct my Attorney General to use regulatory authority under existing anti-discrimination laws the 1964 Civil Rights Act to define racial profiling as discrimination, and to withhold federal funds from departments that violate those regulations. I will also work for passage of the End Racial Profiling Act sponsored by Representative Conyers and Senator Feingold.

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/cg/index.html?type=page&pagename=policy_statement_civilrights_racialprofiling

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. Yes, those stupid voters don't know what they are doing

;)

[beaconess]

12. As noted below, most black voters in DC voted for someone other than Dean

[w4rma]

26. He won, your candidate lost. Don't be a sore loser. (n/t)

[beaconess]

27. Since you don't know who my candidate is or even whether they ran in this

race, your admonition is pretty off-base.

[dajabr]

3. Kick for CMT

:hi:

:kick:

[CMT]

4. thanks

:)

[beaconess]

6. Not quite

Dean's victory in the primary is not as strong an indication of his support in the black community as some believe.

Yes, DC is a predominantly black city - 60% black 40% white. However, the following needs to be considered in assessing the results.

1. Only 16% of registered voters turned out.

2. The preliminary figures indicate that white voters turned out in disproportionately high numbers.

3. While Dean won 43% of the vote, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun together took 47% of the vote - in other words, more people voted against Dean than for him. And, just as telling, more people voted for two African American candidates, neither of whom are considered major contenders, than voted for Dean.

4. According to the Board of Elections, Dean won 53 of the city's 142 precincts. Sharpton beat Dean in the other 89 precincts. The 53 precincts that Dean won are primarily white; the precincts that Sharpton won are majority black. In other words, Dean's strength appears to have been concentrated among white voters while he lost most of the city's predominantly black precincts - by margins as high as 3 to 1.

So, while Dean did well in DC, the election results cannot be read to demonstrate strong support for Dean among the city's African American voters.

http://www.dcboee.org/information/elec_2004/pres_primary_2004_results.shtm

[beaconess]

7. Not so fast

Dean's victory in Washington, DC definitely does not demonstrate strong support in the black community.

Yes, he won 43% of the vote in DC where blacks outnumber whites 60% - 40%, but a closer look reveals some interesting facts:

1. While Dean won 43% of the vote, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun together took 46% of the vote, out-polling Dean.

2. According to the DC Board of Elections, Dean won 59 of the city's 142 precincts. However, Sharpton won 83 of the city's precincts. In many instances, Sharpton beat Dean by a significant margin - sometimes by as much as 3-1.

3. The majority of the 59 precincts that Dean carried are predominantly white. The majority of the 83 precints that Sharpton won are overwhelmingly black.

Based on this, it is clear that:

1. More people voted for the African American candidates in the race, neither of whom are considered major contenders, than voted for Dean;

2. A substantial majority of the city's African American voters voted for Sharpton while a substantial majority of the city's white voters selected Dean.

Thus, far from demonstrating strong support for Dean among DC's black voters, most of whom voted for other candidatesthe DC primary results show that Dean's attraction to the city's black voters was nothing close to overwhelming. In fact, it appears to have been much closer to lukewarm, despite all of the time, effort, and money he expended.

http://www.dcboee.org/information/elec_2004/pres_primary_2004_results.shtm

[beaconess]

8. Sorry about the dupe

I posted two messages by accident while the forum was offline.

[MountainLaurel]

18. WP: D.C.'s White Voters, Not Black, Made Difference for Dean

Howard Dean built his victory in the D.C. primary on the strength of his popularity among voters in white sections of Washington and lost to Al Sharpton in predominantly black neighborhoods, an analysis of precinct results shows.

Dean touted his primary win as evidence of his appeal to black voters, but his margin of victory came almost entirely from a 10-to-1 edge over Sharpton in mostly white Ward 3 in affluent Northwest Washington. In the city's seven other wards, taken together, the two ran almost evenly.

Heavy turnout in Ward 3 helped Dean. More than 19 percent of eligible voters in Ward 3 cast a ballot, compared with a citywide average of 16 percent. The Ward 3 turnout was more than double the turnout in Southeast Washington's Ward 8, which is almost entirely African American and which gave Sharpton his best results. Sharpton beat Dean in Ward 8 by 59 percent to 24 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21058-2004Jan15.html

[mbali]

9. kick