Black Voter Registration Surges In N.C.

By: Scott Conroy
Topics: North Carolina

As polls continue to show Barack Obama maintaining a double-digit lead over Hillary Clinton in the May 6 North Carolina primary, The Associated Press reports that voter registration among blacks is soaring in the Tar Heel State.

Blacks have traditionally accounting for about a third of all voters in past North Carolina Democratic primaries, but Clyde Frazier, a professor of political science at Meredith College in Raleigh, told the AP, "I think everybody's expecting it to be higher than that this year."

The AP reports that over 45,000 blacks registered to vote in the first three months of this year, while about 106,000 whites signed up to vote during the same period. Those numbers are both way up from 2004, when just over 11,000 blacks and 47,000 whites registered during the first quarter of that year, but the percentage increase of new black registrants was much higher than new whites.

If Obama continues to generate the kind of enthusiasm among black voters he has garnered in other southern primaries, North Carolina looks to be his state to lose.

Scott Conroy
Scott Conroy is a National Political Reporter for RealClearPolitics and a contributor for CBS News.
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by craigh9 April 10, 2008 11:17 AM EDT: I''m happy that North Carolina is poised to stick the final dagger in the Hillary Campaign. Unfortunately for them though, I''m not sure you''ll get the opportunity! With Hillarys'' lead in Pennsylvannia dwindling it is highly likely that she will quit - or be forced out by superdelegates pledging support to Obama, once the Penn. primary votes are tallied - if not then NC will handle the final task.; Reply to this comment


by dwmulenex April 10, 2008 11:17 AM EDT: Let''s not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Obama has the virtue of not being caught out by CBS video in an outright lie, as was Hillary, or needing a whisper in the ear from Joe Lieberman to sort out Shia and Sunni, as did McCain in Iraq. We have three serious and flawed candidates. Choose the one you like by what they stand for, and then vet them to see how long and how consistently they have so stood. Hillary will come up short every time, lying about Tuzla, Northern Ireland, her documented support for NAFTA, and her conflict with Bill the Money grubbing ex President over the Colombia free trade deal. That alone should give anyone paying attention 800,000 reasons to oppose her.; Reply to this comment


by kansas1946 April 10, 2008 3:31 AM EDT: This is just the most fun and interesting election cycle. It is amazing when you think about it. On one side, we will either have the first woman or the first black American running, and on the other side, we have a guy whose campaign was almost dead in the water last August. A guy that even the Republicans bashed. No matter what happens, this is the most historical election that most of us will see in our lifetime. How fun.; Reply to this comment


by leef531 April 10, 2008 1:38 AM EDT: greenfun, it''s going to be a very sad day for you...many of them. Poor baby. Just makes your blood boil doesn''t it?
Obama 08; Reply to this comment


by anappleadae April 10, 2008 1:30 AM EDT: Okay... so Hillary doesn''t win. Does Obama''s nomination make it anymore difficult for McCain? No. In fact Obama is fresh meat.Their campaign show is going to make the Bush campaign look like a quiet summer walk in the park.

Does anybody here have the slightest idea what Obama will face? The Republican machine can hardly wait for the Great Black Hope. And after the election and McCain is president the Blacks will burn down their homes and attempt to terrorize everybody and anybody in sight. BORING...

Bet you thought I was going to say "Bring it on". Boring...; Reply to this comment


by greenfun April 9, 2008 11:44 PM EDT: Counterpunch:
Obama has a way of ducking hard votes or explaining away his bad votes by trying to blame poorly-written statutes. Case in point: an amendment he voted on as part of a recent bankruptcy bill before the US Senate would have capped credit card interest rates at 30 percent. Inexplicably, Obama voted against it, although it would have been the beginning of setting these predatory lending rates under federal control. Even Senator Hillary Clinton supported it.

Now Obama explains his vote by saying the amendment was poorly written or set the ceiling too high. His explanation isn''t credible as Obama offered no lower number as an alternative, and didn''t put forward his own amendment clarifying whatever language he found objectionable.

Why wouldn''t Obama have voted to create the first federal ceiling on predatory credit card interest rates, particularly as he calls himself a champion of the poor and middle classes? Perhaps he was signaling to the corporate establishment that they need not fear him. For all of his dynamic rhetoric about lifting up the masses, it seems Obama has little intention of doing anything concrete to reverse the cycle of poverty many struggle to overcome.; Reply to this comment


by blkpresident April 9, 2008 10:24 PM EDT: Steamroll the lil'' woman all the way back to her kitchen stove in NY. Our nation is at war and America''s foreign policy doesn''t wear an apron.; Reply to this comment


by kate1149 April 9, 2008 8:20 PM EDT: Obama said that before we can have any meaningful kind of discussion on immigation and making citizens of the 12 million illegal immigrants that are already here, we need to stop the flow of new illegal immigrants into the country. Makes sense to me.; Reply to this comment


by greenfun April 9, 2008 8:07 PM EDT: From Counterpunch:
Obama acknowledges the disproportionate impact the death penalty has on blacks, but still supports it, while other politicians are fighting to stop it. (On December 17, 2007 New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed a bill banning the death penalty after it was passed by the New Jersey Assembly.)

On September 29, 2006, Obama joined Republicans in voting to build 700 miles of double fencing on the Mexican border (The Secure Fence Act of 2006), abandoning 19 of his colleagues who had the courage to oppose it. But when he was campaigning in Texas and eager to win over Mexican-American voters, he says he''d employ a different border solution.

It is shocking how frequently and consistently Obama is willing to subjugate good decision making for his personal and political benefit.; Reply to this comment