[gov2001-l] Slightly revised abstract for Yuki and Doru

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. ///