Both parties take heart from black voters' turnout (Cleveland)

Both parties take heart from black voters' turnout
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Olivera Perkins and Margaret Bernstein
Plain Dealer Reporters
Ohio's black voters spent the summer and fall registering in record numbers.

On Tuesday, they made their voices heard, enduring rain and long lines to cast their votes.

What was the impact?

For the Democrats, the high turnout in largely black precincts mobilized a base of untapped voters that will come in handy in state and local elections.

But it was the Republicans who perhaps got the biggest boost. Black voters may have given President Bush the edge in Ohio.

Bush got about double the support from Ohio's black voters that he got in 2000. Had those black voters supported John Kerry, the margin would have been tightened and the Democrat would have been within provisional striking distance of Bush, political analysts said.

Still, Democratic leaders see victory in defeat.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/109982343516182.xml

(You'll have to register with them to get the story)

"Bush got 16 percent of the state's black vote, according to exit polls. In 2000, he won 7 to 9 percent of the black vote, depending on the poll. That means Bush won up to 55,000 more black votes if the 2000 percentages had held true, said David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D. C.

While those votes wouldn't have closed the gap between Bush and Kerry, Bositis said they might have deterred Kerry from conceding before all votes were counted. Kerry lost Ohio by 136,000 votes. More than half of the state's 155,000 provisional ballots were cast in the counties where Kerry won a majority.

Bositis said Bush appealed to religiously conservative blacks on moral issues, specifically gay marriage. More than 60 percent of blacks supported Issue 1, the gay marriage ban - a pattern mirrored in most of Greater Cleveland's predominantly black precincts.

He said many black and white conservatives went to the polls primarily to support the gay marriage ban."

the exit polls showed Kerry winning among MEN and WOMEN in Ohio.

then you get to see the whole story.

"Carol Upshur, a black Cleveland Heights resident, became a rising star for the Bush campaign, mobilizing fellow home-schooling families and recruiting scores of new volunteers.

Last Sunday, she delivered a sizzling message at New Spirit Revival Center at the Civic center in Cleveland Heights, warning the congregation that God would be displeased if they voted for Kerry."