The Real Bradley Effect is Not About Race

I was reading the Real World blog about the Bradley Effect. It contains an article by Sal Russo, a man who worked on the Deukmejian campaign, the candidate who beat Democrat Tom Bradley for the governorship of California in 1982.

Russo states that the real Bradley effect is not about race. It is about a candidate who is too far left leaning to be elected. Bradley was up in the polls, but slipping a little day by day as the election neared. The public polls stopped several days early, thinking Bradley had won the election. The media missed the fact that Deukmejian was closing the gap and thus they were surprised when he won. This election closely paralleled the Senate race betweeen Republican Pete Wilson and Deomcrat Jerry Brown going on in the same state. The media predicted Brown would win. However, Brown was seen by voters as too erratic to be trusted and thus Wilson won.

In both cases the voters chose a Republican over a very liberal (almost socialist) Democrat. Therefore, the simplest conclusion is it was the policies of that candidate and not the race of the candidate that made the difference.