Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s prominent role in the mayoral race could be playing a big role in the racial divide that has come to define the difference between Mayor Adrian Fenty’s supporters and D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray’s.
The Clarus Research Poll, released last week, shows that among whites, 79 percent approve of Rhee’s work, while just 28 percent of blacks support her reform efforts. The divide grows among women: 80 percent of white women approve and just 25 percent of black women.
It’s safe to say those results show there’s a cultural divide in the city between whites and blacks, at least when it comes to the school reform Rhee represents. Just how that divide is defined and why it exists, is more difficult to understand.
How it’s playing out in the mayoral race is clear.
Fenty has made his re-election a referendum on Rhee, and his unbending support of the chancellor could be a big reason why he’s losing the support of black voters who voted for him in 2006. By pushing Rhee, Fenty is catering to white voters. Now he just needs them show up in huge numbers on primary day.
