Obama wins Hawaii in a landslide

Advertiser Staff

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye and his fiancee Irene Hirano were among the hundreds of voters in line at Jefferson Elementary School in Waikiki.

GREGORY YAMAMOTO | The Honolulu Advertiser
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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Richard Post points out directions as people at Jefferson Elementary School register to become Democrats.

GREGORY YAMAMOTO | The Honolulu Advertiser
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U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who was born and raised in Hawai'i, won the state's Democratic presidential caucus in a landslide yesterday. Obama had 28,347 votes, or 76 percent, to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's 8,835 votes, or 24 percent, with 100 percent of the precincts reporting.

Those are the vote tallies contained in what the party is calling "the preliminary final" results. A recount is scheduled for March 1 before the final results are released.

Hawai'i Democrats turned out in record numbers at the party's caucuses to help settle the nomination fight between Obama and Clinton of New York.

Obama ran television and radio advertisements in the Islands and talked about his local roots to help distinguish himself from Clinton, who sent her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, to campaign for her in the state.

The caucuses drew a surge of new Democrats, including many who registered to vote and joined the party just last night.

The party had printed 17,000 ballots and volunteers at many caucus sites ran out of ballots and blue party membership cards and had to improvise with notebook paper.

The caucuses have typically drawn fewer than 5,000 people in the past but got more than times that figure last night.

"I trust that the people of Hawai'i understand that this is a very unique year," said Florence Kong Kee, the party's political director.

Brian Schatz, a local Obama volunteer and former state representative for Makiki, said it appeared that last night's turnout may have exceeded the local Obama campaign's estimate of 15,000 to 18,000 people.

"It's a gift this election season to have such excellent choices on the Democratic side," said Schatz, a likely candidate for state party chairman in May. "We think the more people who come in to caucus is better for the Obama campaign."

State House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell, D-24th (Manoa), a Clinton volunteer, described the turnout as "unbelievable."

"Unbelievable, in terms of turnout, in terms of energy — I think it's historic," he said. "I think people thought they were part of something special tonight."

'I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS'

Annelle Amaral, the party's O'ahu County chair, said party leaders thought there would be substantially higher turnout this time compared to past years but there was no way to know exactly how many people would show up.

"How could we be ready?" Amaral said. "How could anyone have anticipated this kind of attendance. It's phenomenal. I've never seen this."

Obama won the Wisconsin primary yesterday, his ninth in a row since Super Tuesday, and had hoped to take the Islands to give him momentum going into Ohio and Texas on March 4. The Clinton campaign has targeted Ohio and Texas as essential for her to rebound and capture the nomination.

Obama, who was born here and graduated from Punahou School, appeared to be attracting many of the new Democrats last night, while Clinton was stronger with traditional Democrats.

Hawai'i's caucuses — in which 20 of the state's 29 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August were at stake — took on greater national importance after Obama and Clinton remained close after Super Tuesday.

At Kapolei Middle School, Carolyn Golojuch, chairwoman of the District 40 caucus site, said she was prepared for a larger-than-normal crowd.

Many of the potential voters did not even know if they were registered Democrats, Golojuch said.

"I'm not sweating this," she said. "They say this will be 10 times bigger than anything we've ever had before. But you know what? Last time we only had 20 people."

Shortly after 6 p.m. — an hour before the caucus began — at least 80 people were already lined up and the crowd swelled as the 7 p.m. vote approached.

Isabel Freund, of Makakilo, participated in her first caucus last night and was prepared to cast her vote for Clinton at Kapolei. "We have two very good candidates and I'm just very interested in participating," Freund said. "We definitely need a change."

At Kawananakoa Middle School, many of the voters in line held signs or wore pins supporting Obama.

PLENTY OF NEW VOTERS

Kellie Peterson, 28, a first-time caucus goer, said its important for Hawai'i to show support for a native son.

"We need to overwhelmingly win it for Obama," she said.

At Kawananakoa, site coordinator Patrick Stanley said he was "cutting as many corners" as he could to speed up the process.

"We have a lot of new voters," he said.

Deloris Guttman, of Downtown, was trying the caucus for the first time. "I think Hawai'i is going to count this year," she said. "Before, we didn't matter."

Voters were also selecting delegates to the state convention in May.

Presidential candidates who receive at least 15 percent of the vote in the preference poll will be eligible for a share of 20 of the state's 29 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Last night's caucuses will determine how those 20 delegates will be awarded.

AIG Hawaii

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