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Article published Feb 6, 2008 Huckabee, Clinton win in Blount County, state
From Staff and Wire Reports
Blount County voters mirrored statewide results on Super Tuesday.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Republican primary in Tennessee and also carried Blount.
With 90 percent of precincts reporting statewide, Huckabee had 33.9 percent of the vote, about 2 percentage points more than Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Hillary Rodham Clinton easily won the state’s Democratic primary, just as she did in Blount County.
Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks show Huckabee ran strong among born-again Christians and conservatives, while John McCain did best among moderates and those ranking “the right experience” and ability to win in the general election as most important.
Huckabee is a former Southern Baptist preacher.
A majority of voters in the Democratic primary were white and women, and Clinton ran strongly in both demographics, according to exit polls.
The senator from New York was also seen as having the best chance of winning in November.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama did best among blacks, but they made up less than a third of the turnout.
Obama wasn’t able to duplicate his success in neighboring states like Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina because Tennessee has a smaller black population and because “even Democrats in this state are fairly conservative,” said Anthony Nownes, a University of Tennessee political science professor.
In the Blount County Republican primary, Huckabee beat out McCain 5,135 votes to 4,915 with Mitt Romney drawing 3,008. In the Democratic primary, Clinton drew 5,713 votes to Obama’s 3,086. Former candidate John Edwards, who recently withdrew from the race, came in a distant third with 397 votes.
In all there were 9,295 votes cast in the Democratic primary in Blount County and 14,929 cast in the Republican primary. The votes included Tuesday’s tally as well as early voting. Absentee ballots will continue to arrive for several more days.
Blount County Democratic Party Chairman Dave Finch was pleased with the local turnout.
“That’s a huge number,” Finch said. “It seems to be me that would be more proper for a general election than a primary. That’s fabulous. It shows a great deal of support for the Democrat candidates in general.
Blount County Republican Party Chairman Dave Bennett could not be reached by cell phone Tuesday night.
Blount County races
In the local races, Property Assessor Mike Morton, who is running for re-election unopposed, received 9,291 votes. The only contested local race in the Aug. 7 county general election will be for the Division II seat vacated by Circuit Court Judge D. Kelly Thomas Jr. when he was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in November 2006.
The Democratic candidate, current Circuit Court Judge Mike Meares, received 7,032 votes. General Sessions Court Judge David Duggan received 9,222 votes in the Republican primary. Both will now face each other in the county general election on Aug. 7.
Finch said he believes the numbers show support for Democratic candidates.
“A significant number of the Republicans did not vote for Mr. Duggan and most of the Democrats voted for Mr. Meares,” Finch said. “I love the insinuation there. It’s a good night, generally speaking, when we can play within a stone’s throw of the established party. It’s always a struggle. I think the national politics has brought a lot of Democrats to the polls that may not have come out under different conditions. “I’m looking forward to the campaign ... we’ll support the national politics, but local politics being local, the Meares campaign is going to be our focus.”
Carl Koella III, who is seeking re-election to his Rockford City Commission slot, received 171 votes. He was unopposed.
Long lines
The heavy turnout did cause a few delays. There were long lines at William Blount Middle School on Tuesday afternoon, some individuals saying they had waited in line for an hour-and-a-half to vote.
At about 1:45 p.m., Election Official Helen Staley, speaking in front of the school, said that turnout, not computer trouble, led to the wait.
“It’s just a long line,” she said, adding that most voters been understanding about the delays. “We’ve not slowed down since 8 a.m.”
Administrator of Elections Libby Breeding had a fifth machine sent to the location to help speed up the process, but lines still persisted.
“At the precincts, we’ve had a very heavy turnout,” she said.
There were no equipment malfunctions, Breeding said, adding that the length of the Republican delegate ballot did contribute to the delay.
At 10 p.m., a white van screeched to a halt in the parking garage next to the Election Commission offices. Out jumped Staley, with the election data from William Blount. “It was about 9:15 p.m. when our last person voted,” she said. Polls closed at 8 p.m., but those in line were allowed to vote.
Statewide trends
In the state race, exit polls show Huckabee ran strong among born-again Christians and conservatives, while McCain did best among moderates and those ranking “the right experience” and ability to win in the general election as most important.
Huckabee is a former governor from neighboring Arkansas and a former Southern Baptist preacher. McCain is an Arizona senator.
The state’s Republican vote had been expected to go to Fred Thompson, but the former Tennessee senator dropped out of the race two weeks before Super Tuesday. That didn’t deter some voters who hoped Thompson could gain the roughly 20 percent of the vote needed to qualify his delegates for the GOP convention.
“He is on the ballot,” said James McCoy, a 34-year-old systems analyst in Knoxville who voted for Thompson. “He is way better than whatever else is available.”
Clinton had 58 percent of the vote, while Obama had nearly 35 percent.
Clinton’s victory followed Tennessee wins by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who twice carried the Volunteer State with favorite son Al Gore as his running mate.
“The fact that she won comfortably is a tribute to the ties the Clintons have in the Tennessee and because the Obama people had not invested the time and effort here and kind of ceded the state to Clinton,” said Vanderbilt University political science professor John Geer said.
“I thought the Clinton days were great, and I want them back,” said Daniel Casey, a 51-year-old salesman in Nashville who voted for Clinton.
Diana Cochran, a 51-year-old Spanish professor at Covenant College, voted for Huckabee when she cast her ballot in Chattanooga on Tuesday.
“I think it is going to be hard to beat either one (of the Democrats). I think they are both popular. I just don’t share their values,” Cochran said.
The Tennessee primary determined 68 of the 1,681 Democratic delegates available on Tuesday, while the state’s GOP primary accounted for 52 of 1,023 delegates at stake.
While Republicans had scrambled to cope with the sudden departure of Thompson, several top Democrats declined to endorse a candidate altogether, including Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate.
Several of the candidates made stops in the Volunteer State in the days before the primary.
Huckabee visited Chattanooga and Blountville while Romney stopped at a popular Nashville pancake restaurant Monday, both touting their conservative credentials. McCain campaigned in Nashville on Saturday night.
Clinton’s campaign was kicked off by her husband, the former president, and she followed that up with two stops late last month. She had her daughter Chelsea meet supporters Sunday in Nashville.
Obama didn’t visit the state after June, but his foreign policy adviser visited Tennessee State University Monday and other surrogates held last-minute campaign events.
Both Democrats ran TV ads in some of the state’s major markets.
The state’s decision to move up the primary date by five days from 2004 is credited with the increased campaign attention.
At least four counties had to close polls early on Super Tuesday because of severe weather.
West Tennessee was hit by strong storms, and possibly some tornadoes, before the polls closed at 7 p.m. Central.
State Election Coordinator Brook Thompson said Dyer, McNairy, Tipton and Fayette counties closed some precincts early to protect election workers during the severe weather.
Dyer County in northwestern Tennessee closed all its precincts at 6 p.m. but voters could still vote at the election commission headquarters in Dyersburg.
Jane Heathcott, administrator of elections, said the Dyer precincts were almost completely empty when the polls were closed.