Locke Not a Lock with African Americans

A Chron poll shows Gene Locke and Peter Brown with statistically equal amounts of African American support, with more than 40% undecided. This matches what I've been hearing from African American leaders in the community, so color me unsurprised.

Among the most striking results is that more than 40 percent of black voters remain undecided. Of those who have chosen a candidate, Locke, an African-American and former civil rights activist, holds only 25.8 percent of the vote to Brown's 22.6 percent.

Brown has been running advertising on radio stations with predominantly black audiences featuring the support of three prominent black ministers, including William Lawson, the founding pastor of the church Locke attends.

“For Locke, this is going to be difficult,” Zogby said. “He's very much an establishment figure. He does reasonably well across the board, but he's got to rediscover his inner African-American-ness. That's going to be his trump card here.”

I guess the "pincer strategy" is pinching Locke in the butt, with no guarantee Republicans voters will pull the lever for Locke (see poll lead by Brown), and no guarantee he's a lock for the African American vote. Moral of this story: Name ID matters, as well as apparently, tapping into your inner Black Panther.