History Here and Everywhere
By Michael R. Sisak / The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County voted for history, Tuesday night.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, defeated the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, in the county by nearly 10 percentage points, en route to a victory in Pennsylvania and election as the country’s first African-American president.
“It’s a great day for America,” Mark Bufalino, the Luzerne County Democratic Chairman, said as he watched election returns in the rotunda of the Luzerne County Courthouse.
Obama, D-Ill. received 67,446 votes, or 54.13 percent of the county’s vote, with all but two of the 189 precincts reporting as of 11:15 p.m., Tuesday. McCain, R-Ariz., won 55,713 votes, or 44.17 percent, and other candidates received 1,448 votes, or 1.16 percent.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., defeated Obama in the state’s Democratic primary on April 22 by a 3-to-1 margin in Luzerne County and McCain’s campaign actively pursued disenfranchised Clinton supporters — inviting them to the opening of the county Republican Party’s headquarters and stocking them with signs that said, “Democrats for McCain.”
The McCain strategy failed, Bufalino said.
“This shows that all of the talk about the Hillary defections didn’t come to fruition and that Luzerne County like the rest of America was committed to the type of change that Barack Obama and Joe Biden were talking about, which is the change for real people, particularly the middle class.”
Luzerne County Director of Elections Leonard Piazza expected voter turnout to eclipse the record of 70.7 percent set in 2004, when Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass. challenged President George W. Bush's bid for re-election.
At least 70 percent of registered voters in Luzerne County went to the polls on Tuesday, with an additional 8,500 casting absentee ballots.
Participation since 2004 had not been nearly as strong, with 29 percent of the electorate casting ballots in 2005, 49.9 percent in the mid-term elections in 2006 and 38 percent in the municipal and county elections in 2007.
Piazza said the "historic" nature of this year's election, with the possibility of electing Obama as the first African-American president, and the Obama campaign's frenetic get out the vote campaign — with door hangers and e-mails reminding voters where to cast their ballots and how to get to their polling places — contributed to the high turnout.
"That's something we have been hearing about all year long, from the primary season with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all the way to this election," Piazza said. "It's a very historic election, not just for our county, but for the country.”
Registered Democrats eligible to vote in the presidential election in Luzerne County outnumbered Republicans by a nearly 3-to-2 margin — 111,317 to 61,085.
Obama’s campaign targeted those voters with advertisements on local television and radio stations that touted the candidate’s proposed tax cuts for middle-class workers making under $200,000, his plans to end the economic crisis and his support for a form of universal health care.
Other advertisements tied McCain to President George W. Bush, claiming they shared many of the same conservative policies and that McCain voted with Bush in the Senate 90 percent of the time.
Luzerne County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, a Republican, objected to the Democrats’ broad-brushed treatment of McCain and other Republican candidates, like 11th District Congressional contender Lou Barletta.
“I think that’s a sad state of affairs to stereotype individual candidates as George W. Bush,” Urban said. “I was under the assumption that race relations were better in this country, but for the Democratic Party to stereotype people, I think they need t take a look in the mirror.”
Obama’s vice presidential nominee, Scranton native Sen. Joe Biden, campaigned in Wilkes-Barre in September, and a series of surrogates pushed Obama’s message of hope and change in the final days before the election — including Caroline Kennedy and Gov. Ed Rendell, who originally supported Clinton.
“The people of this area readily identify with not only the policies, the promises and the hope of Obama/Biden, but they have also been the people who were most victimized by the last eight years and the economic fallout that has affected all of them,” Bufalino said.
“The loyal Democrats and the Hillary supporters responded to the call as well, I don’t think they would have had nearly the support without the combined efforts of both camps,” Bufalino said.
Television networks, including ABC and MSNBC, projected Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes for Obama just after 8 p.m., despite no votes having been counted in the state.
“All right, we'll shut all of this off and go home," Piazza said, after hearing the networks’ projections.
The first precinct counted in Luzerne County, Ward 2 in Edwardsville, was also the first reported in the state, Piazza said.
Those results were a good early sign for the dozen Obama supporters gathered in the courthouse rotunda — 309 to 189 over McCain.
The rest was history.
msisak@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2061
WILKES-BARRE — Luzerne County voted for history, Tuesday night.
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, defeated the Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, in the county by nearly 10 percentage points, en route to a victory in Pennsylvania and election as the country’s first African-American president.
“It’s a great day for America,” Mark Bufalino, the Luzerne County Democratic Chairman, said as he watched election returns in the rotunda of the Luzerne County Courthouse.
Obama, D-Ill. received 67,446 votes, or 54.13 percent of the county’s vote, with all but two of the 189 precincts reporting as of 11:15 p.m., Tuesday. McCain, R-Ariz., won 55,713 votes, or 44.17 percent, and other candidates received 1,448 votes, or 1.16 percent.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., defeated Obama in the state’s Democratic primary on April 22 by a 3-to-1 margin in Luzerne County and McCain’s campaign actively pursued disenfranchised Clinton supporters — inviting them to the opening of the county Republican Party’s headquarters and stocking them with signs that said, “Democrats for McCain.”
The McCain strategy failed, Bufalino said.
“This shows that all of the talk about the Hillary defections didn’t come to fruition and that Luzerne County like the rest of America was committed to the type of change that Barack Obama and Joe Biden were talking about, which is the change for real people, particularly the middle class.”
Luzerne County Director of Elections Leonard Piazza expected voter turnout to eclipse the record of 70.7 percent set in 2004, when Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass. challenged President George W. Bush's bid for re-election.
At least 70 percent of registered voters in Luzerne County went to the polls on Tuesday, with an additional 8,500 casting absentee ballots.
Participation since 2004 had not been nearly as strong, with 29 percent of the electorate casting ballots in 2005, 49.9 percent in the mid-term elections in 2006 and 38 percent in the municipal and county elections in 2007.
Piazza said the "historic" nature of this year's election, with the possibility of electing Obama as the first African-American president, and the Obama campaign's frenetic get out the vote campaign — with door hangers and e-mails reminding voters where to cast their ballots and how to get to their polling places — contributed to the high turnout.
"That's something we have been hearing about all year long, from the primary season with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all the way to this election," Piazza said. "It's a very historic election, not just for our county, but for the country.”
Registered Democrats eligible to vote in the presidential election in Luzerne County outnumbered Republicans by a nearly 3-to-2 margin — 111,317 to 61,085.
Obama’s campaign targeted those voters with advertisements on local television and radio stations that touted the candidate’s proposed tax cuts for middle-class workers making under $200,000, his plans to end the economic crisis and his support for a form of universal health care.
Other advertisements tied McCain to President George W. Bush, claiming they shared many of the same conservative policies and that McCain voted with Bush in the Senate 90 percent of the time.
Luzerne County Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, a Republican, objected to the Democrats’ broad-brushed treatment of McCain and other Republican candidates, like 11th District Congressional contender Lou Barletta.
“I think that’s a sad state of affairs to stereotype individual candidates as George W. Bush,” Urban said. “I was under the assumption that race relations were better in this country, but for the Democratic Party to stereotype people, I think they need t take a look in the mirror.”
Obama’s vice presidential nominee, Scranton native Sen. Joe Biden, campaigned in Wilkes-Barre in September, and a series of surrogates pushed Obama’s message of hope and change in the final days before the election — including Caroline Kennedy and Gov. Ed Rendell, who originally supported Clinton.
“The people of this area readily identify with not only the policies, the promises and the hope of Obama/Biden, but they have also been the people who were most victimized by the last eight years and the economic fallout that has affected all of them,” Bufalino said.
“The loyal Democrats and the Hillary supporters responded to the call as well, I don’t think they would have had nearly the support without the combined efforts of both camps,” Bufalino said.
Television networks, including ABC and MSNBC, projected Pennsylvania and its 21 electoral votes for Obama just after 8 p.m., despite no votes having been counted in the state.
“All right, we'll shut all of this off and go home," Piazza said, after hearing the networks’ projections.
The first precinct counted in Luzerne County, Ward 2 in Edwardsville, was also the first reported in the state, Piazza said.
Those results were a good early sign for the dozen Obama supporters gathered in the courthouse rotunda — 309 to 189 over McCain.
The rest was history.
msisak@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2061
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