Urban Voters, Racial Attitudes, and Neighborhood Context: A Multilevel Analysis of the 2005 Los Angeles Mayoral Election

Abstract

How does neighborhood context affect the relationship between individual racial identity, racial attitudes, and vote choice in an urban mayoral election? Although there have been many studies about racial context, racial attitudes and political behavior, for a variety of reasons, including methodological complexities and lack of quality contextual exit poll data, few studies have focused on vote choice in an urban election. Using exit poll data from the 2005 Los Angeles election, multilevel logistic random slope models are developed to explore the relationship between vote choice, racial attitudes, and neighborhood context. Results indicate significant variation across neighborhoods in the effects of race and racial attitudes, as well as significant contextual and cross-level effects on vote choice.