Thursday, November 08, 2001
Election analysis
Votes for mayor split sharply by race
By Howard Wilkinson
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Every time Charlie Luken walks into a roomful of African-American voters for the next four years, he will know that only one of every four of them voted for him for Cincinnati's mayor.
In Tuesday's election, the first direct election for Cincinnati mayor in 76 years, the voting in the contest between Mr. Luken, a white Democrat, and Courtis Fuller, an African-American endorsed by the Charter Committee, fell consistently along racial lines.
With white voters making up nearly 60 percent of the city's electorate, the outcome was not hard to predict — Mr. Luken won with 55 percent of the unofficial vote count.
“There's no question it was a vote along racial lines,” said Gene Beaupre, a political science instructor at Xavier University. “You could see it coming.”
Two months ago, when Mr. Fuller and Mr. Luken emerged from a mayoral primary election held on the very day the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists, the voting was along racial lines, too.
Mr. Fuller finished first in that contest, with 54 percent of the vote to 38 percent for Mr. Luken.
On that day, turnout in the predominately African-American precincts of Cincinnati's east side — where dissatisfaction with Mr. Luken had been growing since the rioting that swept through the city in April — was significantly higher than in white, more conservative, Republican-leaning west side wards.
That was not the case Tuesday.
Overall, about 20,000 more Cincinnatians voted in this election than in the 1999 council election — 89,079 Tuesday compared with 68,446 two years ago.
Leap in turnout
Turnout was higher than usual in the black wards. In Evanston (Ward 3), it jumped from 41 percent in the 1999 council election to 48 percent this year. In Ward 7, made up of Roselawn and Bond Hill, turnout was up from 43 percent two years ago to 50 percent this time.
But there was a corresponding increase in voting in the predominantly white, west side wards as well — and a leap in voting there from the poor numbers recorded Sept. 11.
The bottom line was that whites voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Luken, while blacks did the same for Mr. Fuller.
“I didn't get a lot of African-American votes, and Courtis didn't get as many votes as he would have liked in the white community,” Mr. Luken said.
In six predominantly African-American wards — comprising the neighborhoods of Roselawn, Bond Hill, Avondale, Over-the-Rhine, Walnut Hills, the West End and Evanston — nearly 18,000 people voted — 78 percent for Mr. Fuller.
In the largest predominantly white west side wards — Price Hill, Covedale, Sedamsville, Sayler Park and Westwood — about the same number of people voted, and the very same percentage cast ballots for Mr. Luken.
But it was not just the conservative west side wards who voted for Mr. Luken in large numbers.
Some predominantly white east side wards voted heavily for Mr. Luken as well — 81 percent in Hyde Park, 80 percent in Mount Lookout, 85 percent in Mount Washington.
Racial voting was evident in other races as well, such as the vote on Issue 5, a charter amendment that would open up the choice of the police and fire chiefs to outside applicants.
It was strongly supported by most black political leaders in Cincinnati, and it showed in Tuesday's results. But it could not have passed with 52 percent of the vote without some pockets of white voter support.
The issue had strong support in black wards — 73 percent in Roselawn and Bond Hill, 68 percent in Evanston and 74 percent in Avondale.
Voters in mostly white Price Hill rejected it with a 71 percent majority, as did Covedale (77 percent).
But Issue 5 did well in some places where backers of the issue did not expect support, such as Mount Lookout, where it passed with 53 percent. In racially mixed Ward 2 (Madisonville and Oakley), Issue 5 passed with 52 percent; and it got 59 percent support in Ward 14 (Pleasant Ridge-Kennedy Heights), another mixed neighborhood.
The stark contrast between the voting in black wards and the voting in white ones in the mayor's race raises the question of how the racial divide in voting will affect Mr. Luken's governing of a city where the white population is shrinking and the black population growing.
Yates' take: Build bridges
Some observers say Mr. Luken will have to reach out to black Cincinnatians to survive politically.
“I think Charlie is smart enough to build bridges,” said former councilman Tyrone Yates, an African-American Democrat.
“Over the course of time, the wounds from the race on race will heal, as people try to work through their agendas at city hall,” Mr. Yates said.
Tim Burke, co-chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said he believes Mr. Luken has been trying to improve race relations since the rioting in April and spent a considerable amount of time in the black community during the fall campaign.
“Charlie is well aware of what he has to do; he was talking about bringing this community together long before the riots happened,” Mr. Burke said.
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