In the larger scope of things this will probably be forgotten no later than Tuesday night, but the Associated Press is projecting that Mitt Romney has won all 15 delegates from the state of Maine. The most interesting result, however, is Ron Paul’s strong finish.
The former Massachusetts governor had 52 percent of the vote with 68 percent of the towns holding caucuses reporting. John McCain trailed with 21 percent, Ron Paul was third with 19 percent, and Mike Huckabee had 6 percent. Undecided votes accounted for 2 percent.
For whatever reason, though, it doesn’t appear that Paul will get any delegates out of the deal.
I didn’t even know anybody was doing elections or caucuses today. When do the Dems in Maine do their thing? Tuesday?
See here for more:
http://www.mainedems.org/caucus08.aspx
Sorry to go all off topic, but I just stumbled on this Obama video — no idea who did it or paid for it, but it’s maybe the most amazing political piece I’ve ever seen. Some of us policy geeks tend to wonder what Obama’s appeal is. Here’s the answer:
http://www.dipdive.com/
Mea culpa if it turns out I’m the last person on earth that “discovered” this — but it’s been a while since a political production sent such shivers down this calcified spine.
Yeah, I thought it was pretty powerful too. Hope springs eternal.
Turnout may be a record since 1980, but the actual number of participants is very low and I have only found these dismal results in local media in Maine such as this keepMEcurrent story Romney leading in early GOP results. Here is an example for Portland:
Mitt Romney – 80
Ron Paul – 52
John McCain – 33
Mike Huckabee – 3
Undecided – 1
169 votes in a city the size of Portland, which has a population of 64,000? That’s it? I’d love to see the turnout numbers for the entire state and the number of registered Republicans to see their percentage turnout.
We traditionally had primaries, then switched to caucuses. Everyone hated them and didn’t show up, so they switched again to primaries about 10 years ago. Then for reasons I don’t know, we yet again came back to caucuses.
Basically, Mainers don’t like caucuses, but the parties do. Also, keep in mind, that the caucuses don’t actually count. They are called “Presidential preference caucuses”
The delegates are assigned later.
Assigned by who, on what basis?