I have often said that many of the African American voters who care to vote have moved to the suburbs. Although I have not seen any surveys of surburban black voters, I did find this section of the new City Pages election post mortem interesting. Bill Dooley (Kenny) "All that aside, the most diminished political force this year may be the African American voter. The turnout this year in traditionally black precincts was markedly lower than in recent years, in both the primary and the general elections. Gerrymandering of districts is only part of the reason the southside Eighth Ward will have its first white representative in many years; residents of the ward's core black neighborhoods simply didn't turn out to vote in the September primary, costing African American candidate Jeff Hayden a place on the November ballot. In the Fifth Ward, general election turnout was also low, and the council's lone African American rep, Natalie Johnson Lee, was trounced by Don Samuels. (Samuels is black, but it should be noted that he takes care to identify himself as a Jamaican immigrant.) Ralph Remington, who is African American, was elected in the relatively affluent and white Tenth Ward. Finally, it's worth noting that some of the perceived distaste for Rybak in the African American community plays out in this year's results, much as it did in 2001. Of the city's 131 precincts, McLaughlin only carried 26. All but five of those, when compared with 2000 U.S. census data, were in predominantly nonwhite wards. --G.R. Anderson Jr. " REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list.
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