minorities – Moe Lane

Louisville Democratic leadership doesn’t care if black people serve on juries.

So, WDRB has this story about a black Louisville judge (Olu Stevens) who has at least twice dismissed all-white juries when there’s a black defendant. The Kentucky Supreme Court is going to be investigating that, and it makes sense that they’re investigating that. But… there’s this data nugget about the Jefferson County jury pool:

[I]n October, 14 percent of potential jurors were black, far below the estimated 21 percent for all residents of Jefferson County, according to records kept by the commission. In September, 13 percent of potential Jefferson County jurors were black.

Continue reading Louisville Democratic leadership doesn’t care if black people serve on juries.

Let me FIFY, National Journal: “Why Don’t White DEMOCRATS Elect Minority Reps to Congress?”

Titles like that annoy me. Essentially since when this is the first paragraph:

It’s an enduring contrast in Congress: Minority legislators are much less likely to represent districts where whites constitute a majority of the population than whites are to hold districts where racial minorities comprise the majority.

…and this is the ninth paragraph:

The evidence suggests[*] it may[**] be easier for minority Republicans to attract support from white voters than it is for minority Democrats. Only 14 of the 88 minority members in the House are Republicans. But they are eight of the 15 minority House members holding majority white seats. They especially have an edge in districts that are at least 70 percent white. Of those eight seats held by minority Republicans, six are in districts that are 70 percent or more white.

Continue reading Let me FIFY, National Journal: “Why Don’t White DEMOCRATS Elect Minority Reps to Congress?”

Democrats paying their minority staffers around 3/5th of White staffers’ salaries.

Fine, fine: it’s more like seven-tenths. Three-fifths has more of a… resonance, though.

…there is a racial pay gap in campaign politics. Asian, Black and Latino staffers are paid less than their white counterparts, according to an analysis by the New Organizing Institute.

For example, African-American staffers on Democratic campaigns were paid 70 cents for each dollar their white counterparts made. For Hispanic staffers in Democratic campaigns, the figure was 68 cents on the dollar.

I’m not going to give The Daily Beast opportunities for agitprop: they’re rather desperate to make this a bipartisan problem. However, if you take the time to pull the original numbers by NOI, you’ll find the following: Continue reading Democrats paying their minority staffers around 3/5th of White staffers’ salaries.

Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?

Sean Trende over at RCP finds something interesting going on with minority polling. The basic numbers at the heart of what may or may not be an important trend are these: the exit poll numbers for 2004/2008.

	2004		2008
Voters	GOP	Dem	GOP	Dem
African American	10	89	5	93
Hispanic	44	55	29	68

As Sean notes, how these numbers shake out in future elections determines how much of the white vote each party generally needs to win. Using 2008 numbers, the GOP’s target number for white voters is apparently 60%, which is a number that gives Democrats some comfort. Continue reading Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?