Obama surges

Bob Gibson / Charlottesville Daily Progress
Published: February 12, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama won a landslide presidential primary victory over Hillary Clinton in Virginia on Tuesday with record numbers of primary voters casting ballots.

Republican John McCain won a narrower victory in the Republican primary over Mike Huckabee, but captured all of Virginia's GOP delegates by winning about 50 percent of the state's Republican voters to 41 percent for Huckabee and 5 percent for Ron Paul.

Clinton carried only one of Virginia's 11 congressional districts, the 9th in Southwest Virginia, so Obama's wins in 10 districts, many by substantial margins with more than 62 percent of the votes going to him, guarantee a fairly wide margin in the delegate votes awarded on a proportional basis. Statewide, Obama carried about 64 percent of the primary's voters to 35 percent for Clinton.

Half an hour after three networks called Virginia in his column, Obama placed a telephone call at about 7:30 p.m. to Charlottesville resident Betty Van Yahres to express his condolences over the death Friday of her husband, former Del. Mitchell Van Yahres.

"I almost fell over," Van Yahres said an hour after she took Obama's call. "He made my day. I've been sad."

Obama had read that the obituary for the former Charlottesville mayor and 24-year delegate had included a sentence asking friends "to make a healthy and significant contribution to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama."

Obama's vote margins Tuesday in Charlottesville and Albemarle County exceeded his statewide numbers as the Illinois senator outpaced Clinton with 75 percent of the votes in Charlottesville to Clinton's 24 percent.

The totals in the city showed Obama received 5,724 votes to 1,870 for Clinton. In the Republican primary in the city, John McCain received 613 votes to 319 for Mike Huckabee and 148 for Ron Paul.

Charlottesville had record turnout for a primary as 36.7 percent of the registered voters cast ballots.

"If this keeps up, we probably will see 80 percent turnout in November," said Charlottesville Electoral Board member Rick Sincere. He said 31.9 percent of city registered voters turned out for the Democratic primary and only 4.7 percent for the GOP primary.

Albemarle County was nearly as strong for Obama as 68 percent of county voters in the Democratic primary cast ballots for Obama to 31 percent for Clinton. The vote totals were 11,159 for Obama to 5,101 for Clinton.

On the GOP side, McCain won 52 percent of Albemarle's Republican votes to 34 percent for Huckabee and 6 percent each for Paul and Mitt Romney, who suspended his campaign a week ago.

County voters cast 3,422 votes for McCain, 2,245 for Huckabee, 406 for Romney and 391 for Paul.

Nearly 11 percent of registered county voters participated in the GOP primary and 26 percent voted in the Democratic primary.

Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle County, said McCain's statewide win "is closer than he wanted perhaps, but it's another win."

"It puts McCain that much closer" to clinching the nomination, Bell said. "It makes him the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination."

Bell called Obama's win substantial and another boost to the Democrat's momentum, saying Clinton may not be able to hold on until the Texas and Ohio primaries that she probably needs to win on March 4.

"She loses Wisconsin next week, she's finished, I think," Bell said.

He called Obama's Tuesday night condolence call to Van Yahres "a classy thing to do."

Del. David J. Toscano, D-Charlottesville, said of Obama's call, "That's very touching."

Toscano said Tuesday night that Obama clearly "has the momentum right now, and it's hard to see where that momentum slows down."

"I am going to support the person who won Virginia," Toscano said, delivering his first public endorsement of Obama.

Two local precincts had power outages late Tuesday while people were voting.

Sheri Iachetta, city voter registrar, said Alumni Hall precinct lost power for 70 minutes, but the machines still worked on battery power and voters cast ballots by flashlight.

County voting officials said Keswick Precinct lost power for about 10 minutes with no major disruptions for voters.

In counties surrounding Charlottesville and Albemarle, Obama won by significant margins over Clinton while Huckabee stayed close to McCain and even captured Madison and Greene.

In Madison, Obama won with 871 votes, or 60 percent, to 572 votes, or 39 percent for Clinton. Huckabee won 500 votes, or 49 percent, to 432 votes, or 42 percent, for McCain.

In Greene, Obama won with 845 votes, or 56 percent, to 657 votes, or 43 percent for Clinton. Huckabee won 568 votes, or 49 percent, to 496 votes, or 42 percent, for McCain.

In Nelson, Obama won with 1,326 votes, or 60 percent, to 845 votes, or 39 percent for Clinton. McCain won 505 votes, or 47 percent, to 439 votes, or 41 percent, for Huckabee.

Four precincts were missing in Fluvanna, Louisa and Orange counties at 10:30 p.m. with Obama solidly ahead in all three counties. On the GOP side, McCain had narrow leads in each over Huckabee.

Statewide exit polling taken for the television networks showed Obama winning by a 90-10 margin among black voters over Clinton and also showed him winning 55-45 among white male voters.

Clinton was winning 51 percent to 48 percent among all white voters due to the 58 percent support she received among white women.

Voter turnout was at least 20 percent of registered voters in the Democratic primary statewide and 11 percent in the GOP primary.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, an Obama supporter, issued a statement saying, "Virginia voters from across the commonwealth came together around a message of hope and optimism. Today, voters showed confidence in Barack's ability to unite this country and transform our politics in the cause of progress."