LAT/AP: Obama takes lead over Clinton in early returns from Hawaii caucus
From the Associated Press
February 19, 2008
HONOLULU -- Barack Obama took a big lead in the Hawaii caucus as early results were reported in his birth state Tuesday which saw Democrats flock in record numbers to choose between him and Hillary Rodham Clinton. With 7.5 percent of precincts reporting, Obama gained 77 percent of the vote, compared to 23 percent for Clinton, according to Hawaii Democratic Party officials. Obama received 2,258 votes compared to 666 for Clinton.
Thousands of people lined up outside Thomas Jefferson Elementary on the edge of Waikiki to cast their ballots, most of them participating in a caucus for the first time. Many said they felt compelled to show up because Hawaii's delegates may help decide the Democratic nominee in a hard-fought, state-by-state battle. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who has been voting since 1948, said the turnout was the biggest he's ever seen. "For the first time we have a woman against an African-American. What more do you want?" asked Inouye, 83, as he stood in line to vote.
Crowds packed the 81 neighborhood caucus sites statewide. Some 12,000 people or more were forecast to participate in the presidential vote starting at 7 p.m. HST. Party leaders have printed out 17,000 ballots and were prepared to start using blank sheets of paper if they ran out. The last caucus, in 2004, drew just 4,000....About 5,000 people signed up with the state Democratic Party since Super Tuesday two weeks ago, bringing the party's total membership to about 25,000 statewide. Only registered Democrats were eligible to participate in the caucus, but voters were able to join the party at the caucus itself....
John Messerly, a 52-year-old former software engineer, wore a blue Obama baseball cap and an Obama lapel pin to his Hawaii Kai caucus. "Obama talks like a Hawaii guy and people really get that. He brings all his aloha spirit across the nation," said Messerly. "Especially after the divisiveness of the last decade." Obama spent most of his childhood in Honolulu until he left for college on the mainland. He still has many local ties, including his maternal grandmother, who helped raise him, and a sister. The sister, Honolulu school teacher Maya Soetoro-Ng, has actively campaigned for Obama on Oahu and Maui.
Clinton, meanwhile, won the endorsement of the state's largest union, the 43,000-member Hawaii Government Employees Association, and Inouye, the dean of Hawaii politics. The eight-term senator returned to Hawaii to campaign in person for Clinton over the weekend. Inouye even joined other volunteers at a Clinton phone bank to call likely Clinton supporters and encourage them to caucus....
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-hawaii20feb20,0,7972626,full.story
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