Jan 23, 2004  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO JR.  | COMMENTS     

Voters in precincts with large concentrations of gay people helped boost Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean’s margin of victory on Jan. 13 in the D.C. primary, which Dean won by a much closer vote count than expected, according to data released by the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics.

With Dean’s third-place setback in this week’s Iowa presidential caucuses, Dean’s strong showing last week in D.C.’s gay neighborhoods suggests that gay voters could play an important role in his effort to jump-start his campaign in New Hampshire and other states.

Dean, the former governor of Vermont, defeated Rev. Al Sharpton of New York City, his closest rival in the non-binding D.C. primary, by a margin of 43 percent to 34 percent. Most political observers said Sharpton did far better against Dean among African-American voters in the D.C. primary than had been expected. Former Senator Carol Mosely Braun of Illinois received 12 percent of the vote and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio received 8 percent. Mosely Braun has since withdrawn her candidacy. The other mainline Democratic contenders — including Iowa winner John Kerry — did not participate in the D.C. primary.

Precinct results released by the District’s election board show that the Dean-Sharpton vote split largely along racial lines, with Dean winning in nearly all majority-white precincts and Sharpton winning in nearly all majority-black precincts.
Although African Americans make up about 60 percent of the city’s population, whites turned out in greater numbers in the Jan. 13 primary, enabling Dean to beat Sharpton by the nine-point margin.

Election board results show that Dean beat Sharpton by lopsided margins in nine of the 10 precincts believed to have high concentrations of gay voters. Nine of the gay-oriented precincts have majority white populations.

Precinct 16, which includes Logan Circle, is majority white but is believed to have a sizable African American gay presence. Dean won that precinct with 259 votes to Sharpton’s 53 votes. Precinct 112, in Anacostia, has a nearly all African-American population that also includes a sizable black gay population. Sharpton won precinct 112 with 129 votes compared to Dean’s 51 votes.

Precinct 127 in Southwest D.C. has a population divided almost equally between whites and African Americans, and is believed to have a sizable population of both African-American and white gays. Dean won Precinct 127, 271 to 179.

According to election board data, Dean defeated Sharpton in other precincts believed to have a sizable gay presence, including Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan.

Gay Democratic activist Brad Lewis, a member of the D.C. Democratic State Committee, has said black gays tend to be dispersed throughout the city, making it difficult to determine if their voting patterns are similar to those of white gays. Gay activists have said that, although white gays also live in neighborhoods throughout the city, many reside in larger concentrations in such neighborhoods as Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and Capitol Hill.

Dean won Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6. Sharpton won Wards 4, 5, 7 and 8.

Rev. trong>Al Sharpton found support from area ministers, despite his strong support for gay rights initiatives, including gay marriage. (AP photo)

Veteran gay Democratic activist Phil Pannell is among a number of prominent black gays in the District who are supporting Dean. Pannell, former chair of the Ward 8 Democratic Committee, noted that Sharpton made frequent campaign stops in D.C. while Dean’s schedule in Iowa and New Hampshire kept him away from the District during most of the campaigning for the Jan. 13 primary.

Sharpton made a number of appearances at the city’s African-American churches, lining up support from the city’s influential black Baptist ministers despite his strong support for gay civil rights and same-sex marriage. In past years, some of the District’s black Baptist ministers have led efforts to oppose gay civil rights legislation.

Dean, who signed the nation’s first gay civil unions law in his role as Vermont governor, has been the target of sharp attacks by conservative Christian groups. Sharpton’s outspoken support for gay rights suggests that the District’s black ministers who backed him in the D.C. primary did not consider Sharpton’s gay rights positions to be enough of a factor to deter them from supporting him.

An “entrance” poll of participants in the Iowa caucuses conducted by a pool of news media outlets, including the Washington Post, examined demographic characteristics of voters but did not include the voters’ sexual orientation.