Vote 2010: Why Artur Davis lost
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010Democratic candidate for governor feels ‘the love’ from former supporters
Vickii Howell originally posted this commentary on Birmingham View, republished here with permission.
Artur Davis lost his bid to become Alabama’s first black governor when state agriculture commissioner Ron Sparks beat him handily in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election.
Rep. Davis lost because he is black. But his loss didn’t come because white Alabamians couldn’t bring themselves to vote for a black candidate. He lost because black voters lost their love for Davis. Or rather, they expressed their “love” by sending him home.
Davis’ congressional vote against health care reform laws earlier this year was the deal-breaker for many black voters, and white Democrats, too. His vote, in their eyes, was a betrayal of trust. While black voters have always been willing to forgive — they even helped the soften segregationist George Wallace to a fourth term as governor — this time, they were unwilling to forget.
The 7th Congressional District is one of the poorest areas in the state, even in the country. It ranks low in so many areas: income, educational attainment, economic development and, most important, health care, including high mortality rates. Such abysmal statistics led the Birmingham News to declare it “Alabama’s Third World.”
After initially losing to incumbent Earl Hilliard in 2000, Davis campaigned to alleviate the poverty and suffering that reporters cataloged with depressing detail in the News’ 2002 series.
So Davis took what amounted to a calculated risk in his gubernatorial campaign. He was the only black congressman to vote against health care reform. It was the kind of reform that could literally save the lives of people in his district, many who are too poor to afford health insurance, or can’t get it because of pre-existing medical conditions.
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Results from Tuesday’s primaries, state and metro Birmingham.
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His vote was an obvious political move to shore up general election votes in November from white conservatives who hated “Obamacare.” It also publicly distanced him from fellow Harvard graduate, President Obama. Before, Davis was among the very first elected officials to actively support Obama’s runs for both the U.S. Senate and the presidency.
It may have been working, judging from comments on a local news site. Readers wrote that Artur took “a principled stand.” He refused to drink the black man’s Kool-Aid about racism, discrimination, social welfare, poverty, blah, blah — you know — the typical whiny “black agenda” promoted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and black Democratic organizations whose support Davis spurned. This (black) man, some commenters said, was someone for whom they could vote.
But this was not a black man for whom black voters could vote. Selma’s controversial power couple Hank and Rose Sanders helped funnel this deep voter dissatisfaction into an organized movement against Davis, the “Love Campaign.” They said that Davis had lost his way, forgetting the needs of the people who put him in office. Those people needed to lovingly correct him, the campaign said, by denying him their vote in the primary. [Davis picks up less than 30 percent of vote in predominantly black counties.]
So, in his pursuit of conservative voters that he would need to win the general election, Davis lost the faith of his base. And they rejected him in the primary, even if it meant denying him the chance to become the first black governor.
Davis seemed stunned by his loss, saying, “This is not the speech I planned to make tonight.”
Video: Artur Davis concedes to Ron Sparks Tuesday night.
Indeed, when I talked to him by phone a few weeks ago, he said he felt confident of victory because various polls showed him with as much as a 13-point lead over Sparks. Was he concerned about backlash over his health care vote? He said people who never intended to vote him were just using that as an excuse.
I wasn’t surprised at all by Davis’ stunning loss. In fact, what I saw and heard in the community, from both voters black and white, was anger, disgust, resentment and a resolve to withhold support because of his health care vote.
I’m sure Davis feels a little differently today. He’s probably feeling the love right now.
Perhaps he’s thinking that he should have stayed in Congress, using his seniority, especially on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, to bring much needed resources to the people of the 7th district. That he could have done more to help them out of the grinding poverty that has gripped their lives for generations. That maybe then, his constituents and others who liked what he accomplished would then help me become governor one day, so he could then work for the good of the entire state.
I hope this tough love will help Davis in the future.
Vickii Howell is editor in chief of Birmingham View, an online community and lifestyle magazine founded in 2003. She also hosts the TV version, which airs at 6:30 a.m. Wednesdays on My68.
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Also:
- Davis says he won’t run for office again.
- Wade on Birmingham: The three or four white guys still running for governor of Alabama
- Birmingham News columnist John Archibald: “Davis was perhaps the smartest, most able man in the race, but he forgot who he was.”
- Doc’s Political Parlor: Hard to fault Davis for his strategy.
- Flashpoint: “Nominating Ron Sparks is like a gift to the GOP.”
- King Cockfight: Alabama voters don’t like change.
- Left in Alabama: Davis vs. the Alabama Democratic Conference
- Talking Points Memo: His major error? Seeking to distance himself from Democrats.
- The World Around You: Davis done in by a combination of factors: polling, health care vote, weak ground game in rural areas.
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More Vote 2010 coverage.
Davis picked up less than 38 percent in his attempt to become the first major black candidate for governor of Alabama. It appears not so much that Sparks won as much as Davis lost, and the reasons are many. Davis failed to win the endorsement of key black Democratic groups; he voted against his party on health care reform; he could still be the wrong color for a conservative Southern state.
CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” has been investigating whether 
