I'm in agreement with most of what TNR's editorial on the D.C. mayor's race has to say, particularly the idea that demographic anxiety in the city has a lot to do with swinging the black vote from Adrian Fenty to Vincent Gray, but this is just wrong (in bold):
There's a strong sense in the black majority that it is “being kicked to the curb,” as Washington Post columnist Colbert King has put it—a feeling that the culture and well-being of longtime African American residents are being neglected as politicians trip over themselves to build dog parks and bike lanes and ratify gay marriage. Rhee fits this anomic narrative. There’s a sense that she has vilified teachers -- pillars of the old black bourgeoisie -- for the sake of making the schools more hospitable to newly arrived white families.
Well King didn't write a thing about gay marriage, because that would have been stupid. It would have been stupid because Gray was City Council chair when the bill passed the Council 11-2 with Gray's support, and because Gray, who has won the endorsement of the city's Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, is seen as the more LGBT-friendly candidate. Sex in the City fanatic Gray isn't exactly a good protest vote for someone opposed to marriage equality.
A better gauge of black residents' anger over same-sex marriage would be the support they're giving the National Organization for Marriage's candidate, Leo Alexander. He's polling at about 2 percent, which reflects the degree of importance that black people, despite being more religious and therefore more likely to oppose marriage equality, place on the issue.
