Betrayed Again 

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"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.