Senate primary: The Black Vote in Norfolk

Local, Norfolk, Politics, Virginia 1 Minute

Much has been written about the black vote in Hampton Roads contributing to a loss for Jim Webb. I have argued that the Affirmative Action issue never really made it down here.

Today, I took a look at the precinct-by-precinct voting. Norfolk has 55 precincts. Eleven of those precincts are more than 80% black. The vote totals for those precincts:

  • Miller 494, Webb 93, total 587, registered voters 19,799, average turnout 2.96%, average Democratic performance 93.7.

The voter turnout ranged from a high of 4.32% (which mirrors the citywide average of 4.31%) to a low of 1.17%.

I then looked at the precincts in which blacks made up less than 10% of the population. There were 8 precincts in this group. For these precincts the vote total was:

  • Miller 494, Webb 555, total 1049, registered voters 16,943, average turnout 6.19%, average Democratic performance 53.0.

Note that the turnout percentage was more than double in the white majority districts and the actual votes almost double. All but one of these precincts exceeded the citywide average turnout, with the highest being 9.99%. The sole precinct below the citywide average had a turnout of 3.73%, which exceeds the statewide average of 3.45%.

I think it is clear that the black vote in Norfolk stayed at home.

The details can be found here.

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13 thoughts on “Senate primary: The Black Vote in Norfolk”

  2. I’ll have to look at the numbers to be sure, but I believe so. There were similar overall turnout numbers – 4,480 in June 05 versus 4,569 this year – but I believe the precinct allocation was different. Remember, we had two other races on the ballot – the Treasurer’s race and the 90th House of Delegates race – in addition to the LG race. And all of the candidates in those races (including yours truly) were black

  3. I just looked at the same precincts. For 2005, the 11 black precincts referred to above had total votes of 1,111. The 8 white precincts had total voted of 585. The 2006 figures are almost the exact opposite of the 2005 numbers.

  5. Hi Vivian:

    Thanks for your post. I think your comment on #2 is key. There were the local races like yours that brought people out in ’05 for the Dem primary in Norfolk. Same issue in Hampton where B.J. Roberts was on the ballot for Sheriff and Portsmouth where Gary Waters lost his re-election. And then there was the 75th HD primary where Roslyn Tyler, Jim Councill, and Jerry Flowers were bringing out 5,000 voters (most Afr-Am) in the Emporia & Southampton area. But you’re correct that Harris did much better in the majority-white precincts in Norfolk than he did in NoVA.

  7. “I have argued that the Affirmative Action issue never really made it down here.”

    Vivian – Do you think it made it anywhere and if did not, why not? After all, Harris did have a lot of money to spread that issue to African American households.

  8. “I think it is clear that the black vote in Norfolk stayed at home.”

    95% of ALL voters stayed at home in Norfolk, so the election didn’t exactly excite anyone, especially after the historic mayoral election six weeks ago. i have to wonder what the turnout would’ve been if the mayor/council elections were held on the same day as the senatorial primary. The turnout probably would’ve been less embarrassing, and the combined election would’ve saved some taxpayer money.

  9. You will never see primary and general elections mixed on the same day. The mayor/council elections will move to November if they move at all.

    And when you’re looking at the differences in African American turnout between 2005 and 2006, please keep in mind that there was a black candidate for LG also. That makes a bit of a difference.

  10. Jeff – I agree with Randy. We’ll never see a primary & a general election on the same day. And, of course, the likelihood of council elections moving to November is, well…. nil.

    Randy – I didn’t forget about Viola Baskerville, just failed to mention it. And she did win in Norfolk.

  11. Tom – I know that it played out in the blogsphere but I really can’t find any evidence that it went beyond that. I did not see all of Miller’s mailings. However, given what little I know of targeting during a prmary race, I suspect that the mail did not reach many black households. Plus, the blogsphere was all over Miller regarding the issue, and we had reports that Miller was told to back off, so my guess is that it didn’t make it to the mail. All of the Miller mail that I saw focused more on his Democratic credentials as opposed to the AA issue.

  12. Vivian –

    I suspect one of the reasons that it did not have legs for Miller is that it really wasn’t a clear winner for him. In other words, Webb’s position on affirmative action, once someone gets beyond the political hysterics that in which Henry Marsh was engagng, really is quite acceptable in the African-American community.

    Donald MacEachin realized this and said so in his endorsement of Webb. MacEachins support of Webb was especially interesting in that the Miller campaign initially listed him as endorsing Harris. Turns out they did this because they were told to include Mr. MacEachins name as a Miller supporter by none other than Senator Marsh.

    Ain’t politics just fascinating sometimes?

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