Study: Mostly black areas gave Bush fewer votes in 2002

A review of about 225 mostly black precincts shows that Bush won fewer votes there in 2002 than in 1998 or 1994.

©Associated Press
February 17, 2003

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush received fewer votes from the state's predominantly black precincts in last year's general election than he did in his previous two gubernatorial races, a new analysis shows.

Bush gathered 2.09 percent of the votes in more than 225 precincts in which 80 percent or more of the registered voters were black, according to the analysis published Sunday by Gannett Regional Newspapers in Florida. He finished next to last among seven statewide candidates, with only independent candidate Robert Kunst faring worse.

Blacks' disenchantment with the governor was geographically uniform across the state, the analysis found. It reviewed almost 5 percent of the total state electorate.

Bush challenged the analysis. He said it contradicted a postelection poll that gave him 18 percent of the black vote. And he said it assumed blacks living in white precincts voted the same as blacks who live in areas where they are the majority.

Nevertheless, the study showed that Bush fared worse than he had in 1998, when he won office with the support of 7.56 percent of registered voters in similar precincts. And he did worse than in 1994, when he lost the governor's race to Lawton Chiles.

Bush defended his record of helping minorities. He said he had awarded more state contracts to minorities, raised more funds this year for the United Negro College Fund and created one of the most diverse administrations in Florida history.

He has appointed five blacks to head state agencies since taking office.

"Most importantly, we will continue to reform our education system to force the system to focus on the lowest-performing students, which, sadly, are people of color," Bush said.

"Results are what matter and in eight years, the results will be clear for all," he added.

Critics claim that Bush's policies have disproportionately hurt blacks.

"Somebody can tell you they love you, but if they slap you upside the head every day, you're going to start to duck," said Daryl Jones, a black Democrat from Miami who helped Bush get elected in 1998. "That's what happened with us and Jeb."

Jones, a former state senator, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor last year.

The breaking point with many blacks came when Bush dismantled affirmative action during his first year in office. Under his new One Florida policy, the percentage of black university students has decreased by half a percent in the past three years.

In addition, Department of Education records showed that Bush's 2001 decision to raise the score needed to pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test would also disproportionately affect black students.

If the standards were applied retroactively, two-thirds of black high school seniors that year would have been ineligible to graduate.

Bush has said the drive behind his education policies -- from rigorous testing to mentoring to championing literacy -- is all about equality, calling reading "the greatest civil rights fight for this state."

The rift between Bush and Florida's black community is not solely of his making, according to black policy analysts.

Hoover Institution research fellow Shelby Steele said the poor and middle-class often have an innate suspicion of the wealthy, which can play out along racial lines.

"The irony of all this is that both President George W. Bush and Gov. Bush have reached out to the black community more than any other Republicans since Lincoln and been rejected more completely than any other Republicans," said Steele.

Bush will funnel $1.4-billion to nonprofit minority organizations -- many of which are black churches -- in the current fiscal year. And one day in 2001, without fanfare, he removed the banner bearing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol.

"We did it because it was the right thing to do, and I'll continue to do that," Bush said.

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