Artur Davis loses in Alabama; Another Democratic health care ‘no’ bites the dust
Since March I’ve been asking how many of the 34 Democratic Members of Congress who voted ‘no’ on health care would see their electoral fortunes improve in November. And if Rep. Artur Davis’s crushing defeat in last night’s Alabama gubernatorial primary is any kind of a weather vane, the answer is decisively in the negative.
Rep. Davis was not seeking re-election in November. He hoped to be Alabama’s first black governor. To make that possible, he pursued a rightward movement in his politics. Voting ‘no’ on health care reform ended up being one of the ways he hoped to signal to Alabama voters outside of his African-American, Democratic base that he could be counted on to govern the state from the middle.
But the effort appears to have failed badly, like ‘explode on the launchpad’ badly. Politico writes of Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks’s upset over Davis the following:
In the Democratic primary for governor, Davis pursued a risky strategy of remaining at arms length from the state’s African-American establishment while making a play for white voters—a move that left a sizable block of the liberal electorate to Sparks, who had blasted Davis for voting against the health care reform bill.
Sparks won 63 to 37% in the primary – a margin that would have caused the invocation of the slaughter rule if this were peewee football. What’s got to become clear to many of the others in the group of 34 is that if they expect right-leaning and centrist voters to carry them alone, they’ve made a horrible miscalculation. Their core Democratic base will stay home or vote for someone else – as they did for Sparks against Davis – and they will lose in November or in the primaries.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ian David, MzYun. MzYun said: Artur Davis loses in Alabama; Another Democratic health care ‘NO’ bites the dust http://ow.ly/1SXOV [...]
I guess now he can go out and get a real job…and stop living off of other peoples taxes…
Ron Sparks obviously can’t run to be alabama’s First White Governor, but maybe he can campaign to be Alabama’s Next white governor
What the hell IS your point? White governors don’t live off of the peoples taxes? Sounds like typical T-Bagger shit to me. Check out Sally Kohn just for fun, but wear your sunglasses.
http://movementvision.org/videoblog/treason/
In response to another comment. See in context »This situation defies the conventional wisdom that portends to be political analysis. There are too many variables for a definitive opinion on the fate of the “34″.
Fat,rich,politically entrenched white guy defeats young,brash,politically bifurcated black guy in ALABAMA. WOW. Who would have guessed? This is not throwing the bastards out. It’s business as usual in AL.
If Davis does not win re-election in the 7th district, your point will begin to gain traction. He did forget to dance with the one what brung him.
Perhaps Davis was fortunate, considering the black tide encroaching on Alabama. (No pun intended). Being governor of an environmental disaster doesn’t seem to have much of an upside. Like taking over for Bush the Younger.
Seems like just 10 years ago another young,brash,politically bifurcated black guy lost a primary for the US House of Representatives by about the same margin. Now we call him Mr. President.
Davis is not running for re-election in AL-7 because he believed he’d win the primary. The primary for the 7th district resulted in a run-off. So unless he’s going to run as an independent write-in…the point is, he’s out of national politics for the moment, unless President Obama ends up giving him a job in Washington, which seems unlikely because there are consequences to voting against the boss on a signature issue like health care reform.
But I think it proves my point pretty cleanly – this wasn’t about racial animus, it was about failing to motivate your base to come out and vote for you because you voted no on an issue that’s important to many of them.
In response to another comment. See in context »Your point about Davis running in the 7th is well made. Sorry for the mistake. I am still unconvinced on the “racial animus” argument. Davis did himself no good voting against healthcare reform, but I don’t see it as a fatal flaw in a state where John McCain received %60 of the vote. In a sane world, I would agree with your analysis. This just reeks of closet racism, which I have to admit is nearly impossible to verify. It still smells bad.
In response to another comment. See in context »We need to see exits, but what if it turns out a lot of Davis’s black base was upset with him because he stood against Obamacare? Still racist? According to the Birmingham News, Davis’s camp saw low voter turnout among black voters as a key cause in his failure at the polls.
In response to another comment. See in context »It’s racial when it pisses you off, Mike. It’s not racial if you like it.
In response to another comment. See in context »You’re reaching andylevinson levels in your trollishness leonkelly. Are you alleging that Alabama’s Democrats all hate the blacks?
I’ll stand by every one of my allegations of race-baiting. It’s something that the GOP’s 25% of the electorate hard core is really good at.
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