Davis: About 25% of Alabama votes determined by race

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) says about a quarter of the votes in the 2010 Alabama gubernatorial election will be determined by race.

“There’s a group of voters who will vote based on race. Some are black, some are white,” Davis, whose running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, told LangiappeMobile.com. “You add that group together and I don’t think it makes up more than a quarter of the state, which leaves 75 percent black and white we have to make the case to.”

Davis suggests that’s not too large a proportion, but it seems like an awful lot to me. Then again, many analysts overestimated the role race would play in Barack Obama’s candidacy, so maybe Davis’s estimate is a bit high as well.