In Dixie, Signs of a Rising Biracial Politics
By JACK BASS
New York Times
Across the South, Barack Obama’s smashing primary victory in North Carolina last week reflects a new reality — a half-century of rising Republican red tide has crested, with signs of receding.
A week ago yesterday, Democrats won a special Congressional election in a Louisiana district held by Republicans since 1974. That outcome might well be replicated Tuesday in Mississippi, where a biracial Democratic coalition is optimistic in the second round of another special Congressional election.
Roger Wicker, a Republican picked to fill the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott’s retirement in December, had easily held the Congressional seat since 1994. Yet former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, says he has found “a lot of optimism among Democrats” for their candidate, Travis Childers, who received 49.4 percent of the vote — 3 percentage points ahead of his Republican opponent — three weeks ago, in a first round of voting in which the Republican secretary of state left the names of defeated primary candidates on the ballot.
In response to Mr. Obama’s energizing of black Southern voters, enlightened self-interest may well convince many of the region’s undecided superdelegates to endorse him. Over the last two years, there have been little-noticed Democratic gains in Congressional and state legislative elections across the South, as the solid black Democratic base has been joined by whites disenchanted with the Bush administration. New concern about the economy may be adding momentum.
(Continued here.)
New York Times
Across the South, Barack Obama’s smashing primary victory in North Carolina last week reflects a new reality — a half-century of rising Republican red tide has crested, with signs of receding.
A week ago yesterday, Democrats won a special Congressional election in a Louisiana district held by Republicans since 1974. That outcome might well be replicated Tuesday in Mississippi, where a biracial Democratic coalition is optimistic in the second round of another special Congressional election.
Roger Wicker, a Republican picked to fill the Senate seat vacated by Trent Lott’s retirement in December, had easily held the Congressional seat since 1994. Yet former Gov. William Winter, a Democrat, says he has found “a lot of optimism among Democrats” for their candidate, Travis Childers, who received 49.4 percent of the vote — 3 percentage points ahead of his Republican opponent — three weeks ago, in a first round of voting in which the Republican secretary of state left the names of defeated primary candidates on the ballot.
In response to Mr. Obama’s energizing of black Southern voters, enlightened self-interest may well convince many of the region’s undecided superdelegates to endorse him. Over the last two years, there have been little-noticed Democratic gains in Congressional and state legislative elections across the South, as the solid black Democratic base has been joined by whites disenchanted with the Bush administration. New concern about the economy may be adding momentum.
(Continued here.)
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