Back during the Roberts confirmation I received about as many downratings as I've ever gotten, for suggesting that one of Roberts's greater strengths as a nominee was his gleaming whiteness. The guy's face looks to me like it could have come right off of Third Reich poster (forgive me), and he's got the blonde wife and adopted blond kids to back it up (forgive me again). My thesis was that this would make it harder for Democrats to oppose him.
It was a couple of weeks after Roberts was confirmed before I could do an analysis of our Democratic Senators' votes in relation to the whiteness of their state's populations, to see if I was right. Because by then Roberts was already sworn in -- and because this issue stimulates very negative reactions and I didn't want to just stir up trouble for its own sake -- I never diaried what I found.
Because -- and only because-- there's now been an open invitation to discuss racial matters here on dKos, I'm gonna go ahead and put up my results, below the fold.
According to the
2000 U.S. census, 75.1% of the overall U.S. population is white.
Of the 29 Democratic Senators from states with white populations exceeding the national average, 20 voted YEA and 9 voted NAY (I include Jeffords in this total, since he caucuses with the Democrats).
Of the 16 Democratic Senators from states with white populations less than the national average, 3 voted YEA and 13 voted NAY.
Here they are (state-by-state racial breakdowns were taken from here.):
Senator % White Vote
Leahy, Vermont 96.8 YEA
Jeffords, Vermont 96.8 YEA
Byrd, West Virginia 95.0 YEA
Rockefeller, West Virginia 95.0 YEA
Harkin, Iowa 93.9 NAY
Conrad, North Dakota 92.4 YEA
Dorgan, North Dakota 92.4 YEA
Baucus, Montana 90.6 YEA
Nelson, Nebraska 89.6 YEA
Dayton, Minnesota 89.4 NAY
Feingold, Wisconsin 88.9 YEA
Kohl, Wisconsin 88.9 YEA
Johnson, South Dakota 88.7 YEA
Bayh, Indiana 87.5 NAY
Wyden, Oregon 86.6 YEA
Reed, Rhode Island 85.0 NAY
Kennedy, Massachusetts 84.5 NAY
Kerry, Massachusetts 84.5 NAY
Salazar, Colorado 82.8 YEA
Murray, Washington 81.8 YEA
Cantwell, Washington 81.8 NAY
Dodd, Connecticut 81.6 YEA
Lieberman, Connecticut 81.6 YEA
Levin, Michigan 80.2 YEA
Stabenow, Michigan 80.2 NAY
Lincoln, Arkansas 80.0 YEA
Pryor, Arkansas 80.0 YEA
Nelson, Florida 78.0 YEA
Reid, Nevada 75.2 NAY
NATIONAL 75.1
Carper, Delaware 74.6 YEA
Biden, Delaware 74.6 NAY
Durbin, Illinois 73.5 NAY
Obama, Illinois 73.5 NAY
Corzine, New Jersey 72.6 NAY
Lautenberg, New Jersey 72.6 NAY
Clinton, New York 67.9 NAY
Schumer, New York 67.9 NAY
Bingaman, New Mexico 66.8 YEA
Mikulski, Maryland 64.0 NAY
Sarbanes, Maryland 64.0 NAY
Landrieu, Louisiana 63.9 YEA
Boxer, California 59.5 NAY
Feinstein, California 59.5 NAY
Akaka, Hawaii 24.3 NAY
Inouye, Hawaii 24.3 NAY
Looked at another way, of the 23 YEA votes on Roberts by Democrats, 21 came from Senators representing states with white populations higher than the national average, and 2 YEAs came from Senators representing states with white populations lower than the national average.
Of the 22 NAY votes on Roberts by Democrats, 8 came from Senators representing states with white populations higher than the national average, and 14 NAYs came from Senators representing states with white populations lower than the national average.
I think these numbers prove my point, but it'd be good to hear from people better versed in statistics then me (which is indeed a low bar) as to whether the conclusions that look obvious to me are in fact warranted.