Congratulations, Hilary. And to the Democratic Party.

By John McDaid | Wednesday, 5 March 2008

You've already got the national picture, but here's how things looked in Portsmouth: there was strong turnout for a primary (about 3,100 votes cast) and Clinton received 1,657 to Obama's 1,470 to score a 53-47% win. Obama did better on Aquidneck Island and South County than the rest of the state, where Clinton generally led by ten points or more. The NY Times has a nice infographic.

But here's how it broke down on the precinct level, with Prudence Island (YAY!) coming in big for Obama, and the Southern part of town closer than the North.

Prudence
Barack OBAMA      31
Hillary CLINTON   17

Senior Center
Hillary CLINTON   309
Barack OBAMA      242

Common Fence Point
Hillary CLINTON  327
Barack OBAMA     258

Portsmouth Town Hall
Hillary CLINTON  436
Barack OBAMA     404

Aquidneck Island Christian Academy
Hillary CLINTON   1657
Barack OBAMA      1470

You can get the breakdown at the Board of Elections

But here's why I say "congratulations" to the Democrats. Because we have two strong and exciting candidates, we had very strong turnout. Compare this to the numbers in the Portsmouth Republican Primary:

John McCAIN    726
Mike HUCKABEE  145

That's not by precinct. That's total for the town. And it mirrors the State as a whole, with 180K Democratic votes to the Republicans at 23K. And no, it's not just Blue Rhody. Same results in Ohio, with 2.1M Democratic votes compared to 900K Republican; Texas 2.8M Dem, 1.3M Rep; Vermont: 103K D, 30K R.

Those are the kind of numbers that show one of these great Democratic candidates has the ability to win the general. And that is what really matters.

Tags: 
Localblogging, 02871

Comments

Viking

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 9:24am

A "Thank you" for posting the precinct results is in order - considering that this information was not available in today's ProJo, and I doubt the NDN will provide this data either.

eileen

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 10:23am

So where/how did you get the precinct info? I found a file on the Board of Elections site (data) but cannot download. It's not the usual Excel format. I'm flummoxed.

John McDaid

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 1:23pm

Hi, Eileen...
I just went to the BOE link I used in the story above and surfed around, copy and pasting. If you click on the links by town, you get another link to drill down by precinct. Hope that helps.

Cheers.
-j

eileen

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 4:52pm

But it didn't jump out & hit me.

Thanks!

Portsmouth Citizen

Wed, 03/05/2008 - 6:11pm

After all the dust settled on yesterday's primaries, Barack Obama's lead on the delegate count went down by just four votes. So, Obama is still well on his way to victory, but Hilllary's campaign is going to go on in what is clearly becoming an increasingly negative campaign.

John, I agree that we have two strong and exciting candidates. But I truly believe, after careful analysis and thought, that Barack Obama represents what this country really needs for our next president.

So I did something I've never in my going-on 50 years done before. I gave money to a national presidential candidate. If the campaign has to go on after last night, it's going to go on with a few more bucks in its pocket.

Anyone who feels so moved to join me, go here: http://my.barackobama.com/page/ic/vrd0v73735glsa/ShFBWgUWCVoR

Rhody5

Thu, 03/06/2008 - 2:21pm

John - Although I'm not an active poster on this blog, I visit the site almost daily, so i love you stuff, but I've gotta disagree with you re: the low republican turnout. Primaries are typically low turnout events where you only get the diehard voters to come out and cast ballots. However, with the Democrats having two good candidates in Clinton and Obama and the race still remaining so close, you are seeing a drastic increase in numbers. That is not the case with the Republicans; the race for the GOP nomination was essentially sealed when Romney suspended his campaign in early February. Given that Huckabee didn't stand a chance in Rhode Island or anywhere outside of the Southeast for that matter (notwithstanding Iowa, of course) no one was really all that motivated to go to the polls - only the diehards who would have gone anyway, regardless of how close the race was. In short, I wouldn't read into the fact that the Dems had a huge turnout too much, for it was only a product of the primary race still being undecided.

John McDaid

Thu, 03/06/2008 - 3:04pm

Hi, Rhody5...
That's a fair point, and well worth remembering. I didn't go back to crunch numbers from previous undecided primary contests.

Cheers.
-j