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It’s Official: California Presidential Primary Set a Record for Turnout—Why This is Good News for State’s Democrats in November
By Frank D. Russo
Late yesterday, the California Secretary of State’s office certified the results of the February 5, 2008 Presidential primary election and they show that a record 9.1 million Californians voted. This eclipsed the record for numbers of voters in a primary set in March of 2000 when 7.8 million Californians voted, with Al Gore winning the Democratic race and George W. Bush the Republican race in the state.
As for turnout, 57.71% of registered voters cast ballots, making it the highest primary turnout on a percentage basis since 1980. The highest-ever percentage turnout in a primary was nearly 73% in 1976.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen, California’s chief elections officer, said: “The closeness of the Republican and Democratic contests, and the ability to truly help pick the next presidential nominees, clearly motivated Californians to head to the polls in record numbers for a primary election.” That is an accurate assessment.
Bowen also said: “I hope voters, particularly people who registered for the first time to vote in the February election, will keep up the momentum and head to the polls again in June and November.” Therein lies the key to the November election.
Not only was the turnout of registered voters high, but the percentage of those who turned out compared with the percent of those eligible to register to vote in the first place was higher than it has been since 1980. In other words—the voter registration rate is up in addition to the turnout being up. And—it’s Democrats who are turning out to vote.
There were 2.1 million more votes cast in the Democratic primary for President than in the Republican primary: 5,066,993 votes in the Democratic versus 2,932,811 in the Republican primary—or a 63% Democratic to 37% Republican advantage.
Democrats had more voters than Republicans in areas of the state normally won by the GOP: the counties of Fresno, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Stanislaus, and Tulare. These are great numbers. And it’s not just coming from independent or Decline to State (DTS) voters. 74.3% of registered Democrats voted, compared to 58.9% of Republicans, and only 23.3% of DTS voters.
You can pour over the final numbers on the Secretary of State’s website. The Statement of Vote includes presidential results broken down by party, county, and Congressional District. It also includes statewide and county-specific results for the seven statewide ballot measures that were on the February ballot.
I’ll let someone else flyspeck these for the final delegate totals elected for Clinton and Obama in California. The final numbers show that Clinton won by an 8.3% margin, 51.5% to 43.2%.
Turnout was highest in Sonoma, with 76.4% of registered voters casting a ballot, followed by Marin at 75.7%. Last, was Imperial County with a 40.1% turnout, comprising just 23.8% of those who were eligible to register.
Amongst the largest counties in the state, those with strong Democratic majorities turned out at a rate significantly higher than the statewide average, with San Francisco at 64.5% and Santa Clara at 66.4%. San Diego County, as mentioned before, had more Democrats turning out than Republicans, and had 60.7% of all voters voting.
The exception is Los Angeles County—home to a third of California’s voters. Only 55% of LA voters voted. This is where Democrats have their work cut out for them and a real opportunity.
Part of this is that the Los Angeles County Clerk/Registrar has not aggressively pointed out to voters that they can vote by mail. Overall, 41.7% of those voting in California did so by mail and 58.3% voted at the polls. A look at the Secretary of State’s numbers show that only 28% of Angelenos voted by mail.
The Rasmussen Reports telephone survey for California just released shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 53% to 38%. Hillary Clinton leads McCain 46% to 39%. Obama is viewed favorably by 59% of the state’s voters, McCain by 49%, and Clinton by 47%. The state remains in the Safely Democratic column according to the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator.
In addition to the presidency, the Secretary of State's final figures, however, should give Democrats hope for pick-ups in the Fall on Congressional and state legislative races.
Comments
The experience claimed by Mrs. H. Clinton was spent as follows:
International
• 10 visits to African Sahara to see elephants, turtles, giraffes, hippopotamus, and voodoo ritual dance,
• 3 visits to the Arabic Gulf Area (with her husband) seeking gold and precious gifts from kings of Saudi Arabia and emirs of other rich states. Let her provide tax return for 1997,1998, 1999.
• 8 visits to Europe to see Madam Tissue Museum, York and Harrogate in Yorkshire in England, and Can and Monte Carlo, and Eiffel tower in France, and Baden Baden in Germany, and Mona Lisa and Cecilia in Italy,
• 1 trip to China to see China Wall and China circus
National
• After her visit to Walter Reed Military Hospital in Iraq to learn first hand the
Challenges facing American combat forces; she gave her recommendation that the hospital is the best in treatment and staff. Three months after the recommendation, scam, deception and fraud, and scandals started to come out of the hospital, (one year of experience),
• As First Lady of the United States, she took a prominent position in policy matters. Her major initiative, the Clintonhealth care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congressan in 1994, but in 1997 she helped establish the State Children’s Health Insurance Program with a major insurance company. Let her provide tax return for that year (three years of experience),
• The state of her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of considerable public discussion followingthe Lewinsky scandal in 1998 ( 3 years of experience),
• After moving to New York, Clinton was elected as senator for New York state in 2000. In the Senate, she initially supported the George W. Bush administration on some foreign policy issues, which included voting for the Iraq War Resolution (one year of experience),
• Rodham came to a key decision when she decided to marry B. Clinton. As she later wrote, "I chose to follow my heart instead of my head.". I hope not when she answer the phone at 3;00am (in love 3 with B.Clinton years of experience),
• B.Clinton was at the time teaching law and running for a seat in the U.S. Houseof Representatives in his home state. In August 1974, H. Clinton moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, and became one of two female faculty members in the School of Law at the University of Arkensas, Fayetteville( 4 years of experience),
• Following the November 1978 election of her husband as Governor of Arkensas, Rodham became First Lady of Arkansas in January 1979, her title for a total of twelve years (1979–1981, 1983–1992). Clinton appointed her chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee the same year (twelve years of experience),
• In 1979, she became the first woman to be made a full partner of Rose Law Firm. From 1978 until they entered the White House, she had a higher salary than her husband. During 1978 and 1979, while looking to supplement their income, Rodham made a spectacular profit from trading cattle futures contracts;her inittial $1,000 investment generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months. The couple also began their ill-fated investment in the whitewater Development Corporation real estate venture with Jim and Susan McDOUGAL AT THIS TIM (Three years of experience).
IN CONCLUSION, HER EXPERIENCE WAS SPENT IN MONEY HUNTING. WILL OHIO, CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY,AND TEXAS REGRET WHEN THEY READ ABOVE FACTS.
Posted by: howson at March 18, 2008 06:35 AM
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