Betrayed Again 

But what's really going on here is much bigger than the election returns of last week, and it speaks volumes about the state of race relations in the Democratic Party, and likely everywhere else. Over the last several elections, it appears that a significant percentage of white Democrats have been snubbing qualified, seasoned African-American candidates at the polls, and black voters have subsequently been playing payback. At least three political careers have been derailed in the process.

To understand what's going on, you first have to understand the fragile symbiotic relationship between black and white Democrats. For Democratic candidates of the Caucasian persuasion in North Carolina, where one in three Democratic voters are black, African-American votes are like oxygen. Without them, their political careers die a quick death at the polls. So for years, black voters have been encouraged by the party's white and black leadership to play for the team and vote for all the Democrats on the ballot rather than reserving their votes for African-American candidates. Then during each election, the party put a lot of time and money into making sure that black voters went to the polls. In exchange for turning out the vote, African-American candidates were supposed to get enough votes in white Democrat precincts to get elected.

District 2 County Commissioner Norman Mitchell, an African-American leader who has always pushed other black voters to vote a straight Democratic ticket, says he's catching flak everywhere he goes from black voters who feel they've been burned. Since the election, he says he's had a lot of explaining to do.

"I'm getting phone calls and emails," he said. "We thought by supporting everyone we would get that support also."

This delicate system of vote swapping among black and white Democrats has long been based upon a single axiom thought to be as irrefutable as the law of gravity: the Republican Party is the party of racism and the Democratic Party is the party of tolerance. Based on that, the question for over 90 percent of African-American voters at election time hasn't been which candidate they'll vote for, but which Democrat candidate they'll vote for.

Up until a few years ago, the system worked fine. An analysis by Creative Loafing of past election voting patterns in heavily white Democratic precincts showed that 20 and 30 percent of white voters have been voting for white Democratic candidates but failing to pull the lever for their highly qualified black running mates. In past elections, the difference was always made up in black precincts, where African-American candidates come in slightly ahead of white Democrats, and by the fact that Republican turnout hasn't exactly been overwhelming and overall Democrat turnout has been pretty healthy. If Democratic number crunchers noticed that there was a white fall-off when it came to African-American candidates, it wasn't discussed publicly.

That all changed in 2000, when County Commissioner Jim Richardson, a popular retired state legislator, and an African-American, came in fourth in the at-large county commission race for three open seats. Richardson had been part of a three-member Democratic team that included Becky Carney and Parks Helms. All three were incumbents. Carney and Helms won, but Richardson came in a full 14,940 votes behind Helms and just 646 votes behind Republican Tom Cox, who won the third seat.

In the wake of Richardson's 2000 loss, Republican County Commissioner Bill James sent an email analysis to about half the county of the voting patterns in white Democrat precincts, including those in the Elizabeth and Dilworth neighborhoods, which are traditionally heavily Democratic/predominantly white areas. With only two exceptions, Richardson came in 30 to 90 votes behind Helms and Carney in every precinct. While James' intentions were purely partisan, the truth of the situation couldn't be ignored. In liberal County Commission District 4, where two-thirds of voters are registered Democrat or Unaffiliated, Richardson came in 986 votes behind Helms and 1,469 votes behind Carney. Had white Democrats in District 4 voted for him the way they voted for the other two Democrats, Richardson would have won the seat.

James, who never misses an opportunity to poke a Democrat in the eye, describes the voting pattern of white upper middle class liberals in the Dilworth and Elizabeth neighborhoods in inflammatory terms.

"Maybe they don't wear sheets and dance on people's lawns, but you can bet that their great-great-grandfather's Confederate sword is still hanging on the wall and you can bet that they don't vote for you-know-what," said James.

In the wake of the Richardson debacle, white and African-American Democratic party leaders publicly held hands and sang "Kumbayah." But off the record, speculation and suspicion between white and black Democratic leaders ran high. Would African-American voters start "single-shotting," or only voting for black Democratic candidates?

The next time they voted, the county's African-American voters sent the party a clear message that ended the career of Democrat Susan Burgess, a white mayoral candidate who likely would have given Republican Mayor Pat McCrory a run for his money.

Burgess' main opponent in the 2001 mayoral primary was African-American Democrat Ella Scarborough. In past races for mayor and the US Senate, Scarborough had made thoroughly disastrous runs against McCrory and future Democrat Senator John Edwards in which even African-American leaders were divided in their support of her. That Scarborough had no chance of beating McCrory was well known. So was Burgess' long history of a tight relationship with the black community and leadership. Behind the scenes, though, the off-the-record whispers among politicos weren't about either of the women, but about Jim Richardson's loss the previous fall and how it would affect the race. When the votes were counted, Burgess lost every one of 18 key black precincts, garnering 835 votes to Scarborough's 3,818. In the end, Burgess was clobbered in a primary race largely decided in African-American precincts.

So far, the uproar over Darrel Williams' loss has mostly centered around how white Democrats vote, racially speaking, in general elections. But it's in the Democratic primaries where the massive racial divide among white and black Democrats can really be seen. In most -- not all, but most -- of the 30 heavily white Democratic precincts Creative Loafing analyzed, African-American candidates like US Senate candidate Dan Blue and Scarborough in her senatorial race lost to the leading white male candidate by margins of between five and ten to one. Across town, in the 18 heavily black precincts CL looked at, white candidates for the US Senate like Erskine Bowles, D.G. Martin and John Edwards lost to the African-American candidates in the race by nearly the same margins.

Though the two races may divide like oil and water in the primaries, black voters have done a better job of keeping up their end of the bargain in the general election than have white Democratic voters. In 2000, Helms came in just 53 votes behind Richardson in the general election at-large county commission race. In the 30 highly white precincts in liberal county commission District 4, however, Richardson came in nearly 1,000 votes behind Helms, which ultimately cost him the race.

The same pattern can be seen in the 2002 race, where Williams came in almost 800 votes behind Helms in District 4. Granted, since Williams fell short of the third seat on the commission by a total of 4,263 votes, it can't be said that white Democrats in District 4 are totally to blame for his loss. But how the people in District 4 voted is a good indicator, says UNCC political science professor Ted Arrington, of how other white Democrats across the county likely voted.

"I can't believe it's not (Williams') race," said Arrington, who is white. "There is a racial difference. Black Democrats will never be able to get the vote that a white Democrat could get."

After the internal scuffle within the party over Richardson's loss two years ago, Mitchell said that many black leaders simply believed the party had learned its lesson and wouldn't allow it to happen again.

"We still had people in the background saying remember what happened to Jim Richardson. Bill James even said it," said Mitchell. "But I was confident because of what had happened to Jim Richardson that white Democrats would come back and rally around the ticket to make sure that that didn't happen again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. It seems that we've been taken for granted for so long. We'll be analyzing the numbers for some time."

Crunching numbers is one thing, but publicly addressing the situation is another. One has to wonder whether the problem will be dealt with at all, or just publicly smoothed over, as has happened in the past.

In fact, it seems the damage control effort has already begun. Williams, who publicly blasted white voters in the media in the days after the election, was singing a different tune by Friday, when CL talked to him. He worried aloud that CL would do a "negative" story and downplayed the role his race likely played in his loss.

Like others last week, Williams blamed his loss in part on Republican enthusiasm and the lack of African-American turnout compared to Republican voter turnout. Even though he has served for eight years as a district rep, he even questioned how well known he might be compared to Helms, who had run at large many times before. But while these things no doubt contributed to Williams' loss, the fact that white Democrats appear to be voting for black Democrats less often than their white counterparts -- and that in precinct after precinct, Williams was deserted by some white Democrats when he needed them the most -- remains unchanged.

"Anyone who says it (race) didn't matter isn't being truthful with themselves," said Mitchell.

Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon, an African-American who won his at-large city council seat in a citywide race last year, has his doubts as well.

"You can't tell me that the people of this county didn't know who Darrel Williams was," Cannon said. While Cannon also admitted that other factors besides race influenced Williams' loss, he also said the party continues to "use" African-Americans.

While Arrington admits there's some of all of the above going on, he placed some of the blame for Williams' loss squarely on Williams' shoulders.

"I don't think Williams did the campaigning he should have done in the white community," said Arrington. "You have to go out there into the white community and you show your face and say, "See, I have a black face but I don't have horns and I will represent you.' Williams did not do that. He did not have that kind of aggressive campaign. He might have beaten Republican Dan Ramirez if he had done so."

There is some evidence to support Arrington's viewpoint. Arthur Griffin, an African-American at-large school board member who lives in the suburbs, won his race by running a solid campaign that touched all parts of the county. And although Cannon ran in the city of Charlotte, which has a smaller percentage of Republicans than the county as a whole, he also won his seat in a citywide at-large race.

Whatever the case, the county's black leaders say they want answers from the Democrat Party's leadership. Some, like Cannon, went so far as to say that African-American voters should consider switching their affiliation from Democrat to Unaffiliated. But none of the black leaders CL talked to would go so far as to say they'd switch over to the Republican Party or actively work to support Republican candidates.

Mary Kay Ulsamer, the Chairperson of the Mecklenburg County Republican Party, said the party has been working to reach out to black voters. This fall, the local party and the Republican National Committee sponsored an event at the Marriott on Tyvola Road aimed at reaching out to African-American voters. About 300 people attended and while most were black Republicans, "quite a few" black precinct chairpeople came, she said. Ulsamer also pointed out that in the two days after the election, the part of the county party's web page that chronicles the timeline of black Republican history got between 80 to 90 hits a day, far more than usual. Ulsamer thinks that might indicate that some young African-American voters, who are more likely to be computer savvy, could be having second thoughts about their parents' stalwart allegiance to the Democrats.

"Something's going on," Ulsamer said. "We'll continue our outreach. We need to gear up even more."

Ulsamer said Republicans have gotten a bad rap when it comes to race.

"The Republican Party is supposed to be the party of bigots and racists, but we elected an immigrant," she said, referring to Ramirez's third place at-large victory. But even Ulsamer has doubts about whether black voters will ever find a home in the GOP in large numbers.

"I think most blacks are conservative in the way they live their lives," Ulsamer said. "For someone to come over to the Republican Party they would have to share our philosophy about government, but I don't know if they do."

Evidence of that was already seen Friday, when Mitchell punctuated his rave about the racial proclivities of his own party with a diatribe against a proposal by Republican County Commissioner Tom Cox, who came in first in the at-large race, to lop a dozen or so cents off the property tax rate.

"Think what that will do to social services," he said.

How white Republican voters might react to black Republican candidates is unknown because there's never been a serious black Republican candidate in Mecklenburg County in recent memory, if ever. And Arrington, who credits Helms' prior first place finishes in the at-large race in part to ticket-splitting moderate Republicans and unaffiliated voters, points out that they, too, abandoned Williams.

If there's a solution to the problem of race-based voting, no one has come up with it yet. But the bottom line is that it appears that black voters have few options for getting the full attention of their party, or any other party for that matter. As Arrington points out, even if large numbers of African-American voters had voted only for Williams to register their discontent with the Democratic Party, both Williams and Helms could have lost. Or just one could have lost. Either way, the Republican Party would have still taken over the county commission.

And either way, there'd still be a lot of unresolved tensions between the two races that no one really wants to talk about.