Democratic delegates mirror America gender-wise

By Eun-Kyung Kim/Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The delegates heading to the Democratic National Convention are mostly white and better educated than the rest of the country, range in age from 17 to 88, and the percentage of minorities is greater than in the U.S. population as a whole.

More than 400 are lawyers -- and even they will be outnumbered by the politicians. The 4,338 delegates also include teachers and union officials, talk-show hosts and actors, homemakers, business owners and a supermodel -- Christie Brinkley.

The convention delegation is book-smart: 71 percent are college graduates and 45 percent have done postgraduate work, according to Associated Press interviews with 3,711 of them.

Democratic delegates mirror their Republican counterparts in that "they are wealthy and very well educated on the whole," said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia government professor. "There are exceptions, but overwhelmingly these are rich individuals. The difference comes in the gender and racial breakdowns."

Democratic rules require that each state delegation be split evenly between the sexes, so about half the delegates are women.

The party also sets goals for filling a share of the delegate slots with minorities, a priority reflected in the ethnic makeup of the delegation: About 68 percent are white, 18 percent black and 2.5 percent Asian or Pacific Islander. About 1.2 percent are Native American, 3.8 percent mixed or other backgrounds. The remaining 6.6 percent did not respond to the question. About 8.3 percent said they were Hispanic, a category included in other racial classifications.

The Census Bureau says 82 percent of the population is white, 13 percent black, 4 percent Asian and 0.9 percent Native American. Males and females are roughly equal in number.

The ethnic diversity among the Democratic delegation presents a striking contrast to the middle-aged, overwhelmingly white (88 percent) and mostly male (61 percent) group of delegates to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia earlier this month.

And the delegates know it.

"We have young people, people from every ethnic group and gays and lesbians," boasted third-time delegate Jackie Stevenson of Minnetonka, Minn. "White males, laborers, farmers -- we run the gamut."

Among other details the AP learned about the Democratic delegates:

_More than half the group will be attending a national convention for the first time, including Joseph Bailey III, an 18-year-old from Halifax, Va. In comparison, Rosalind Wyman of Los Angeles is a seasoned veteran, having attended every convention but one since 1952.

--A majority, 52 percent, said they support civil unions and benefits for gay couples. About 17 percent oppose them and 16 percent said they were unsure.

--Twenty-eight percent are union members.

--About 30 percent hold some type of elective office, ranging from local school board to president of the United States: Bill Clinton is an unpledged "superdelegate" from Arkansas.

--About 60 percent are married; the average number of children is 1.8.

Convention delegates, whether they are Democrat or Republican, tend to be more ideological than their parties and the nation, said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

"They're not your average folks for one humongous reason _ they're very, very into politics," he said. "That separates them from most Americans, for whom politics is a passing interest. It's usually of no interest except during some crisis, and only a passing interest in an election year."

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