Softened Wedges: How Economic Opportunity Tempers Voter Response to
Polarizing Issues
/ Political parties add polarizing issues to the public agenda in order
to establish favorable majorities. In the case of several racially
charged propositions added by Republicans to California ballots, the
sponsors' expectations of polarizing the White majority against the
Latino minority led the latter to join the Democratic camp while
affecting little change on the former group's allegiances. Previous
research suggested that both groups had shifted towards the Democrats,
Latinos as the propositions' target, and Democrats due to a backlash
against the Republican use of this racially charged tactic. We find that
not only did Whites not punish the Republican use of this strategy, but
in fact rewarded it, though tepidly. Employing a multidimensional model
of partisan identification, we seek to show that it was economic
opportunities and not the propositions that shaped the preferences of
White voters, thus accounting for this group's shift towards the
Democrats. Therefore, while voters may modestly reward the use of wedge
issues, our results indicate that the party that wins its supporters'
economic allegiance may fare better. ///