Politico has a piece which should put to rest the idea that black voters imply vote for black candidates or democrats for that matter in a sort of blind fashion (as characterized by republicans — who amazingly never seem to worry about demographic groups like conservative christians or religious sects).

I guess it came as a belated shock that in order to win a Democratic Party Primary it helps to support Democratic policies!

Davis won only two of the 11 counties in Alabama where African-American voters are a majority and lost some counties in the rural Black Belt by huge, double-digit margins. In Lowndes County, where 70 percent of the population is black, Sparks, who is white, won by 29 points. In Perry County, with a 67 percent black population, his victory margin was 44 percent.

Sparks even bested Davis by 16 points in Davis’s home base of Jefferson County, where Birmingham is located, and Davis won just two of the 12 counties he’s represented since 2002.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38042.html

Well, low and behold African-American voters have again shown a significant margin of disapproval toward black candidates that hew to centrist positions when more liberal alternatives are available.

Salon sums it up best

Davis voted against healthcare reform in the House back in March, calculating that a “yes” vote would kill him with the Alabama general election audience of 2010. This may well have been accurate, but he forgot that he also faced a Democratic primary — and Democratic voters were none too happy to see him siding with the GOP and against Barack Obama (even if the White House was privately understanding of Davis’ vote). His years of tacking to the middle made it impossible for him to get the benefit of the doubt. Leading civil rights groups ended up backing Sparks, who is white, over Davis. When the returns came in on Tuesday night, it wasn’t even close.

In a way, it’s a fitting end. Davis built himself up at the expense of his party. Then his party got even.