Black Folks Voting Republican In Virginia?

Recent polling in the Virginia Gubernatorial race has indicated that Bob McDonnell, the republican candidate is drawing strong support from the black community -

The latest SurveyUSA poll showing Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell with a 19% lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds (which would be the biggest win for any Virginia Governor of either party since 1961) has some interesting internals.  One of the strangest findings is that McDonnell is getting 31% of the African American vote.

Is this possible?  Well, the smart money would say no.  But if you want to construct an argument for SurveyUSA being correct, consider the following:

Virginia Governors Race – Founder of Black Entertainment TV Endorses Republican, McDonnell

The Gubernatorial race in Virginia this year, one of two states who schedule off-year elections has the makings of a barn-burner. Moderate Republicans and Moderate Democrats have both served Virginia well, and in that vein, Republican candidate Mitch McDonnel has steadily moved to the center.

Sheila Johnson

His challenge Creigh Deeds is from downstate, and pulled an upset over Terry McCaliffe and the Clinton money machine in the primary. He doesn’t have the high tech connections a candidate from Northern Virginia or the Virginia Beach/Newport News area might have. Mark Warner is trying to rectify that.

This defection however, is a big surprise -

Sheila Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and the former chairwoman of Democratic Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s inaugural committee, crossed party lines Monday to endorse Republican Bob McDonnell as Kaine’s successor, arguing McDonnell would do a better job of spurring economic development in Virginia.