12:24 AM: Obama posts wins across board in Wis. counties
Barack Obama rode a simple formula to his big win in Tuesday's primary: He held his own against Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin's rural areas and clobbered her in many of the state's bigger counties.
Dem strategists generally believed going into the primary that Clinton could have a built-in edge over Obama in northern and western Wisconsin, home to more conservative, blue-collar Democrats who tended to support her husband in the 1990s.
But Clinton was only able to post decent wins in a handful of counties, including Adams (53 percent), Burnett (53 percent), Douglas (56 percent) and Forest (56 percent). Less than 30,000 votes were cast in those four counties combined.
In all, she was winning 10 counties, according to unofficial returns.
By comparison, Obama was winning Milwaukee and Dane counties with more than 60 percent of the vote in each. That edge accounted for almost half of his statewide lead over Clinton.
He won Brown County with 56 percent of the vote, La Crosse with almost 58 percent of the vote, Racine with 55 percent of the vote and Rock County with almost 57 percent.
Many Dems believed Obama had a natural edge in Milwaukee County because of its large African American population and saw the potential for UW-Madison students to help deliver Dane County.
But they weren't expecting him to post double-digit wins in places like Grant and Green counties in southwestern Wisconsin. He won more than 58 percent of the vote in each.
He was winning Eau Claire County with 63 percent of the vote and Winnebago County with about 60 percent of the vote. Both are home to UW campuses.
In Walworth County, he had more than 59 percent of the vote. In Vernon, he was at better than 55 percent. In Sauk County it was 58 percent.
In short, he won big, small, urban, rural, black, white, affluent and poor.
The exit polling showed he edged Clinton among those who had been her base: women (51-49), those without degrees (50-48) and whites (53-46).
As of midnight, Obama led Clinton 58 percent to 41 percent, according to unofficial returns.
By comparison, John McCain, who has had the nomination all but wrapped up since shortly after Super Tuesday, was beating Mike Huckabee 55 percent to 37 percent.
It appeared projections that some 1.5 million would turn out Tuesday were close and the highest percentage of the voting age population would turn out since the 1988, when almost 39 percent turned out.
See the statewide results.
-- By JR Ross
Labels: 2008 spring primary