Edwards bids for S.C. blacks' votes

[chimpymustgo]

Election 2004 African-Americans are a key to primary

By ROB CHRISTENSEN, Staff Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Sen. John Edwards, a white millionaire lawyer, will visit black churches across South Carolina today, hoping that he has enough in common with the flock to collect their crucial votes.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a white, Brahmin-accented, prep school graduate, has been talking about fish fries with black politicians and submitting to gibes about his shortcomings in the rhythm department.

The two senators are the chief rivals in Tuesday's South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, which two new polls suggest is a virtual dead heat. No voting group is more important to each man than blacks, who are expected to compose as much as half of the primary electorate.

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In speeches, Edwards often recalls segregation -- blacks forced to sit in the movie theater balcony, the whites-only signs. He talks about a teacher in Georgia telling his class that he would resign because he did not want to teach in an integrated school.

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Black people were always part of Edwards' life, friends say. His pick-up basketball games at the UNC-Chapel Hill law school included blacks. Black friends attended his wedding. Many black law school classmates, now judges and lawyers, helped him run for the U.S. Senate in 1998.

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  http://www.newsobserver.com/edwards/coverage/story/3294100p-2940997c.html

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Lots of interesting anecdotes about Edwards and several other candidates (Kerry, Sharption) as they appeal for black votes.

[jmaier]

1. Edwards is going to have difficulties

with the AA vote in SC, I suspect. He has to face Sharpton, the Clyborn endorsement for Kerry as well as Charlie Rangel, Mary Frances Berry and the Buffalo Soldiers on the ground in SC for Clark.

[SadEagle]

2. The polling breakdowns I saw at dkos had quite a gap for him

Can't find the link ATM, I am afraid. But that poll (Zogby(?)) had Dean and Kerry both having more %% support among African-Americans than their share of white vote, while Edwards had like 30-something points with whites, and around a half of that with AAs (sorry, don't remember how Clark was doing). I think one of the reasons for Zogby having Kerry and Edwards close is that he is figuring very high African-American share of the vote, which benefits Kerry, and hurts Edwards