Despite convention delegate totals dominating the news, Plainfielders will be pleasantly surprised to learn that their over-the-top support for Barack Obama in Tuesday's primary outshone every other town in Union County -- including Elizabeth, more than two and a half times the size of Plainfield -- pushing Obama to a 50.5% win over Clinton's 47.5% countywide.
With 77% of ballots -- 5,762 votes out of a total of 7,483 -- cast for Barack Obama, Plainfield led the county both in percentage of votes given to him and in absolute numbers.
Elizabeth, which went for Clinton -- 63% - 36% -- came in with the second largest number of Obama votes at 4,602. Linden, which went for Clinton by 52% - 45% had the third highest number of Obama votes at 3,025.
Roselle (2,975) and Hillside (2,932) came in 4th and 5th, respectively, in total numbers.
The percentage story is just as striking. After leader Plainfield (77%), the following towns gave Obama more than fifty percent of the Democratic vote: Roselle (66%), Hillside (65%), Rahway (57%), Summit (56%), Fanwood (55%), Scotch Plains (55%), and Westfield (51%).
Union County's story appears to parallel that of the state -- the exceptionally large turnout indicates that a large number, perhaps up to a third of the total, were unaffiliated voters energized to participate in the primary by declaring a party preference and voting.
In this regard, all the excitement was on the Democratic side of the contest, with Republican turnouts not reflecting anything near the same interest from unaffiliated voters. (Links to complete county-by-county and town-by-town votes are at the end of this post.)
The other parallel with what pundits have noted about Obama's constituency is the solid support in upscale communities -- in Union County including Summit, Westfield, Fanwood and Scotch Plains.
Credit for Plainfield's stunning response has to be laid at the feet of the grassroots volunteer effort coordinated by Councilor Rashid Burney. Anyone who visited Obama headquarters on South Avenue in the days running up to the primary was impressed by the buzz of activity as volunteers worked the phone banks from every nook and cranny. A big huzzah to all!
While Democratic machines throughout the state either lined up behind Clinton -- who called in her many political chits -- or made no public commitment, the Obama votes came from utterly outside the political machines, as Newark's legendary North Ward politico Steve Adubato lamented in yesterday's Ledger -- "I never saw an election where politicians like me have so little to do with the outcome."
Change is in the air.
- Turnout: "Demographic split in N.J. Democratic primary"
- "2008 NJ Primary Results By County" -- "Dem" | "GOP"
- Machines: "Unique day breaks political machines' grip"
-- Dan Damon
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment