Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois lost big time to Sen. Hillary Clinton in her home state of New York in the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday.
But for local Obama delegates and campaign volunteers, downplayed the loss in votes. Obama still took away delegates to the party’s nominating convention, winning New York State, said delegate Lisa Daly, of Dewitt, N.Y.
“That’s delegates out of her back yard,” Daly said.
Daly arranged for more than 60 Obama volunteers to canvas the city of Syracuse and Onondaga County this past week before the “Super Tuesday” presidential primary. After passing out fliers, holding signs on street corners and driving the elderly to the polls, the volunteers met up at the Dewitt Tavern on Erie Boulevard to celebrate and watch the stats as they came into CNN Tuesday evening.
Obama trailed Clinton’s 58 percent with 39 percent of the unofficial New York state-wide Democratic votes. But Obama took his home state of Illinois, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia and North Dakota.
For the Republican nomination in New York, Sen. John McCain of Arizona beat former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with an unofficial state-wide 51 percent to 28 percent of Republicans in New York.
The next Democratic presidential primary is on Feb.9 for Louisiana and Washington, and will continue until the Democratic National Convention in Denver, C.O. in August.
Local Democratic voters at the Jamesville-Dewitt High School polls too were torn between Clinton and Obama. One such voter, Bob Weisenthal, 52 of Dewitt, voted for Barack Obama.
He was really torn between Clinton and Obama, he said, and the decision was more about political strategy against the Republicans than about issues. “I felt like he has the best chance of winning,” Weisenthal said.
(Laura Van Wert is a senior newspaper major.)
-30-
