DETROIT HELPS DEMS TRIUMPH IN MICHIGAN Detroit Free Press (MI) By    PATRICIA MONTEMURRI FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER; FREE PRESS REPORTERS AMBER ARELLANO, CHRIS CHRISTOFF AND BILL MCGRAW CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT Date: November 10, 2000; Page: 1B Edition: METRO FINAL; Section: NWS Memo: ELECTION 2000 Without Detroit voters, Al Gore would not have won Michigan and Debbie Stabenow would be without senator-elect in front of her name. The huge volume of votes from Michigan's largest city, predominantly black and heavily unionized, gave both Democrats the margins they needed to triumph. About 94 percent of Detroit's votes went to Gore, and 92 percent went to Stabenow. David Bositis, one of the country's premier researchers into minority voting trends, said Thursday that Detroit probably ranks as the most Democratic big city in the United States. "I don't know any other city that would be close," said Bositis, senior researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies based in Washington, D.C. Gore won Michigan's 18 electoral votes with about 208,000 votes more than GOP rival George W. Bush. Detroit alone contributed more than 273,000 votes to the Democratic presidential ticket, while Bush garnered about 15,000 votes from city voters. Stabenow defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham by about 57,000 votes statewide. Without Detroit's 267,000-plus votes cast for her, Stabenow would have lost. As Detroit's population becomes increasingly African American -- census estimates suggest about 80 percent of the city's roughly 1 million inhabitants are black -- its vote becomes increasingly Democratic. That's because black voters are the Democratic party's most loyal supporters. Among voting trends that emerged in Detroit: * Detroit's voter turnout Wednesday was significantly below the state's average turnout. About 47 percent of registered voters in Detroit cast ballots, compared to 62 percent statewide. * The actual number of presidential votes cast in Detroit has declined from the 1992 and 1996 presidential races. That may reflect the city's population decline, experts said. About 291,500 Detroiters voted Tuesday for president. In 1992, about 338,000 Detroiters cast presidential ballots, with President Bill Clinton winning 87 percent. In 1996, about 295,000 Detroiters cast ballots, about 92 percent supporting the Clinton-Gore re-election bid. * Democrats said they hoped that Detroit's reliably Democratic voters would help unseat three Republican justices on the Michigan Supreme Court. But one out of three Detroiters supported the trio on the ballot, which does not note party affiliation for judicial seats and listed the incumbents as sitting justices. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Detroit voters "made a great showing" at the ballot box Tuesday. "As a matter of fact, we had such a great turnout in Detroit, there are some big Republicans who said we had too big of a vote," Anthony said. "My God, what do they want? You can't have it both ways. Either we had a significant showing or we didn't." Detroit's heavily Democratic vote has raised eyebrows among Republicans. Gov. John Engler criticized NAACP radio ads in Detroit that criticized Bush for opposing a hate-crimes law in Texas, suggesting they inflamed racial animosity toward the GOP. Speaking on a cable talk show Wednesday, former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a Republican, expressed disbelief that Gore could have commanded such a large vote in Detroit. Sununu, who was chief of staff during President George Bush's administration, hinted that voting irregularities must be behind such an overwhelmingly Democratic vote. But Bositis said Sununu's outrage belied his ignorance of urban voting trends. The suburban counties north of Detroit, Oakland and Macomb, also gave a majority of their votes to Gore. Oakland, however, backed Abraham, R-Auburn Hills, over Stabenow, who defeated him. Macomb County -- one of the most dissected regions politically in the nation -- went Democratic for the second straight presidential election. After being solidly Democratic through 1968, Macomb County became a GOP stronghold starting in 1972 and gained fame for the so-called Reagan Democrats -- longtime Democratic voters who switched to support Ronald Reagan. Contact PATRICIA MONTEMURRI at 313-223-4538 or montemurri@freepress.com. Free Press reporters Amber Arellano, Chris Christoff and Bill McGraw contributed to this report.