Gov. Rendell may have been right all along when he said some white voters in Pennsylvania aren't ready to vote for a black presidential candidate.
In the Democratic primary, 19 percent of all voters said race was an important factor in their decision. And 4 percent of voters said it was the
most
important factor. Among this group that acknowledged taking race into consideration, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama, 59 percent to 41 percent.
And the exit polls suggest a similar motivation among some black voters. Four percent of Pennsylvania voters were African Americans who said race was an important factor in their decision.
For decades, blacks have given strong support to white Democratic candidates. But on Tuesday, given a choice, 90 percent of African American voters chose Obama. It's not quite the same as Rendell's canon that some white voters cannot bring themselves to support a black candidate. But it shows that at least many black voters based their choice on race. Thirty-seven percent of white voters supported Obama.
Does all of this mean Pennsylvania is an intolerant cauldron of racial division? No. If anything, the results show that Pennsylvanians are very similar to voters in other states when taking race into account.
But the results here and nationally do show that there is more work to be done on accepting candidates on their positions on the issues, rather than on race.
Considering that Pennsylvania was the first primary held after the controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright's inflammatory racial rhetoric, the exit polls indicate that voters here didn't allow it to influence them. The breakdown of voters along racial lines followed closely the results in earlier primaries, before Wright's comments became an issue.
In Texas, 19 percent of voters said race was an important factor (7 percent said it was the most important). Of this group, Clinton won 52 percent. In Ohio, 17 percent said race was important; Clinton won 60 percent of them. Obama won 88 percent of the black vote in Ohio.
New Jersey, which held its primary on Feb. 5, has a more diverse electorate than Pennsylvania. Just as in Pennsylvania, 19 percent of New Jersey voters said race was an important factor. But Obama won in that group with 49 percent, to Clinton's 47 percent. (John Edwards received 4 percent.)
When one-fifth of Democratic primary voters admit taking race into account in the ballot booth, it shows the nation still has social hurdles to overcome. If a candidate's race is as important to some voters as his or her views on the economy, or the cost of health care, then something is being lost in the debate over how to move the country forward.