For months I haven’t felt much passion in our African-American community about the Indianapolis mayor’s race. My feeling was reinforced by the first independent poll in the race, released last week by WISH-TV (Channel 8).
The big news wasn’t that Mayor Bart Peterson was leading 52 percent to 38 percent over his Republican rival Greg Ballard; with Libertarian Fred Peterson (no relation) 2 percent, with 8 percent undecided.
The big news was the poll showing that the mayor’s Black support is incredibly soft. The poll reported that 71 percent of African-Americans would vote for Mayor Peterson, 8 percent for Ballard, but 21 percent of Blacks polled said they were “undecided” in the mayor’s race.
Eight weeks before the election, an incumbent, two term Democratic mayor, highly visible in the Black community has one-in-five Black voters saying they’re undecided whether to vote for him! That’s a stunning statistic.
It’d be easy for “undecided” Black voters to tell an unknown pollster they were voting for Peterson. That they didn’t signals some serious dissatisfaction and unease in our Black community with the mayor and his administration.
That dissatisfaction doesn’t automatically translate into Ballard votes; but it could mean many of these “undecided” Black voters will stay home Nov. 6. And a soft Black turnout could imperil Bart Peterson’s re-election.
Why? Because the white vote is virtually a dead heat.
The WISH-TV poll said Ballard’s getting 50 percent of the white vote; Peterson 45 percent. With the poll’s plus/minus 5 percent margin of error, the result’s a statistical dead heat.
Ominous is the poll reporting just 2 percent of white voters are undecided. Seemingly white voters have made up their minds in the mayor’s race. Anti-Peterson white voters may be more motivated voters than white and Black Peterson voters.
Reaction to the WISH-TV poll was surprisingly muted as neither campaign attacked the poll’s accuracy, meaning the result must mirror each campaign’s internal polling.
So, why the high amount of undecided Black voters?
On key issues, the WISH-TV poll found Black voters conflicted. Was Mayor Peterson doing enough to fight crime? – 43 percent of Blacks said yes; 42 percent said no.
On the police/sheriff’s merger? – 38 percent of Blacks oppose it, 33 percent favor it, 29 percent not sure.
Forty-seven percent of Blacks feel Indianapolis is moving in the right direction, 36 percent said Indy’s moving in the wrong direction, 17 percent undecided. Compared to 50 percent of whites who feel the city’s moving in the wrong direction.
On property taxes, Blacks were the one group polled most in favor of keeping them; 51 percent were against eliminating them, compared to 52 percent of all city/county voters who want them gone.
Obviously, the WISH-TV poll found crime is still a critical issue for Black voters. Property taxes aren’t as critical. But other issues are important to our community. Issues neither the mayor nor Ballard’s campaign have addressed.
With the Jena 6 case fresh in minds, the alleged kicking of a downed Black youth by an IMPD officer during Black Expo still rankles.
Plus there’s unease over neighborhood issues – streets, sidewalks, jobs, abandoned buildings. There’s a sense the city isn’t responsive fast enough.
This campaign, Mayor Peterson has seemingly played defense, talking up crime fighting and fighting property taxes. But Peterson hasn’t defended his record, told our Black community what’s he’s done, and what he plans to do the next four years.
And the mayor hasn’t stressed what will happen if Republicans recapture the mayoralty and the council.
Think the NFL’s dissing of Black-owned business and our Black community was bad? If the haters surrounding Greg Ballard’s campaign have their way, Blacks’ll be run out of the City-County Building, the way we were when UniGov was created.
I know that last paragraph will anger the Ballard campaign. But they’ve not been forthcoming in articulating their vision for Indianapolis and how African-Americans fit into it. In a race where a fifth of the Black vote is up for grabs, and where Ballard’s Black support is as weak as President Bush’s, Ballard must explain himself to our community. And he must publicly disavow the race baiters and haters inside and on the fringes of his campaign.
The race for mayor is Bart Peterson’s to lose. If he doesn’t do something soon to energize Black voters and reduce Black undecided, then Indianapolis could be witnessing the biggest upset since Appalachian State beat Michigan.
A final word on WISH-TV’s poll. The station and pollster Del Ali, are to be commended for being the first mainstream media poll to fully publicize their poll’s methodology and release results by race, gender and party.
The poll’s racial proportionality was good. African-Americans were 23 percent of those polled, whites 71 percent. That compares well to Indianapolis/Marion County’s voting population that’s 25 percent African-American; 67.5 percent non-Hispanic white.
This column has repeated called for transparency in the publication of local media polls. I commend WISH-TV’s effort.
I now expect the same transparency from polls taken by Channel 13, the Indianapolis Star and Fox 59.
What I’m hearing in the streets
Ball State University President Jo Ann Gora admitted her university doesn’t have high ranking Black administrators and faculty like Indiana or Purdue. Interviewed on our “Afternoons with Amos” program, Gora said Ball State is being aggressive in their outreach to African-Americans.
Gora decried recent on and off campus racial incidents that have Blacks questioning Ball State and Muncie’s inclusiveness.
While she couldn’t comment directly about former men’s basketball coach Ronnie Thompson, son of coaching legend John Thompson, who quit earlier this year citing racial insensitivity and harassment, Gora reaffirmed the university commitment to diversity in hiring Coach Billy Taylor, the third African-American head basketball coach in Ball State history. That’s a record unmatched by any other Indiana university.
A packed house celebrated the 25th Celebrity Roast sponsored by Indianapolis Chapter of Links. Ten local community leaders, including Recorder Board Chairman Bill Mays and Publisher and President Rep. Carolene Mays, joined Bishop Tom Benjamin, Alpha Blackburn, Vop Osili, Jarnell Burks-Craig, Dr. Edward Ross, Sam Odle, Willis Bright and Max Siegel in the annual charity fundraiser.
I’ve been privileged, or misguided, to be the roastmaster of this annual event which demonstrates that a roast can include no “blue,” “off-color,” or curse words and still be funny.
See ‘ya next week at the Classic.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or e-mail him at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
