Boone County crucial factor in Dem. election

By Michael Sewall

Published Feb. 8, 2008

Of many close races on Super Tuesday, Missouri boasted two of the most divisive contests in the Democratic and Republican primaries.

Although polls closed in Missouri at 7 p.m., neither the Democratic nor the Republican race could be called until almost midnight.

“We always seem to finish up elections after midnight here,” Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said in an interview after the final results came in. In 2006, McCaskill had to wait until just before 5 a.m. the day following the election to give her victory speech in a close race for Senate against incumbent Jim Talent.

For Republicans, it was a tight three-way race that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., eventually won with 33 percent of the vote. Former Govs. Mike Huckabee, of Ark., and Mitt Romney, of Mass., came in second and third, respectively, with each garnering just several points fewer than McCain. Romney, who dropped out of the race on Thursday afternoon, received the most Republican votes in Boone County, with 36 percent.

On the Democratic side, it was a neck-and-neck race throughout the night between Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. Clinton held a slight lead most of the night until Obama surpassed her total, winning with 49 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 48 percent.

For voters looking for the difference, they need look no further than Boone County, which includes Columbia.

While Clinton still had the lead later into the night, Boone County was the only county in the state that had not reported at least 85 percent of its precinct totals, according to the Missouri secretary of state’s Web site. In fact, it had reported only one precinct of 86 by the time most counties finished reporting.

The swing in votes came when the Boone County totals heavily favored Obama. According to the county clerk’s Web site, Obama won 61 percent of the Democratic vote in Boone County, compared with just 37 percent for Clinton.

MU College Democrats President Caitlin Ellis said she was excited the local efforts were able to make a difference in the elections.

“I think it’s very inspiring for next year for us to have already seen that we can have such a tangible effect on the state as a whole,” Ellis said.

Obama won big in other metropolitan areas, including Kansas City and St. Louis. He secured 66 percent of the vote in Kansas City and 71 percent in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Clinton won the popular vote in almost every other county in the state. This outcome was a departure from earlier states this year, including New Hampshire and Nevada, in which Clinton won in the larger cities and Obama won almost everywhere else. Because of the proportional outcome, with Obama taking the urban areas and Clinton taking the rural areas, each candidate was awarded 30 delegates from Missouri.

Ellis also said it was promising to see the large turnout for Democratic voters. Democrats outnumbered Republican voters in Missouri on Tuesday by more than 230,000 voters.

“I think it’s just a reminder that you really never know what Missouri is going to do,” Ellis said. “When we look at the Democratic turnout versus the Republican turnout it’s an indicator that Missouri will vote Democratic in a national election.”

Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren could not be reached for comment.