Despite primary, Pennsylvania is Obama's to lose

[babylonsister]

Despite primary, Pennsylvania is Obama's to lose
Campaign says it's an all new ballgame
Sunday, July 27, 2008
By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

snip//

"The primary allowed us to build an infrastructure that is enormously helpful going forward," said Craig Schirmer, the Democrat's freshly installed state director. "Having the experience of such a competitive primary gives us a big advantage over John McCain."

Rendell signs on

A Clinton partisan then, but an Obama ally now, Gov. Ed Rendell suggests that the Obama campaign's grass roots efforts may have paid off in ways that were not immediately recognized in the wake of Mr. Obama's nine-point primary loss.

"They do the registration and field stuff very, very well," he said. "Had they not done the registration and the field as well as they did, I think we would have beaten them by 17, 18, 19 points."

According to the Department of State, 218,923 new voters registered in Pennsylvania before the primary -- 152,775 Democratic and 40,195 Republican. Another 164,026 voters switched their affiliation to the Democrats, compared to just 14,887 who changed to Republican.

Mr. Rendell estimated that those new Democrats favored Mr. Obama by more than two-to-one. And, he said, "As much as it was expanded in the run-up to the primary, I still believe there are anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 new Democrats more to be added... I'm hoping we'll see another 100,000 new Democratic voters by the time the registration closes."

more...

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08209/899848-176.stm

[BlooInBloo]

1. Nice to hear.

[Arkana]

2. Good to know this.

Ed Rendell better work his ass off too.

[AllentownJake]

3. Going to crush McCain here

Obama has events going on all over the state registering voters and 24 offices. McCain has one office open in PA in Harrisburg.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/PAopening/

[Cha]

6. I would think so, Jake..

thanks for that info.

[ShadowLiberal]

4. As a PA resident I have to say I'm surprised that zero polls have put McCain ahead here for months

While PA has usually leaned democratic, it's always had a small margin of victory of just a few percent in presidential elections. It is true that our governor Ed Rendell, and new senator Bob Casey did win by huge margins in 2006, but Casey ran against a radical rightwinger when the republican controlled congress was deeply unpopular, while Casey himself was known to be a moderate, with a popular moderate father who also involved in politics before he died. In the governor's race Ed Rendell was so popular that his opponent didn't stand much of a chance, especially in a democratic year like 2006.

There are still Hillary supporters here though who won't vote for Obama, I only know of one of them though, my grandmother. I think she only liked Hillary because she was a woman, and wanted to see a woman elected president while she was still alive, she changed her party registration to vote for her. She's not a very political person, she often votes for people based on who's more charismatic rather then policies.

[Hamlette]

9. actually, only the 2004 prez election was that close (2 points)

Gore won by 5 and Clinton by 9 each time. Could be PA is getting more red but it hasn't always been that close (in prez elections)

[Cha]

5. Call me Surprised!

"A Clinton partisan then, but an Obama ally now, Gov. Ed Rendell suggests that the Obama campaign's grass roots efforts may have paid off in ways that were not immediately recognized in the wake of Mr. Obama's nine-point primary loss.

"They do the registration and field stuff very, very well," he said. "Had they not done the registration and the field as well as they did, I think we would have beaten them by 17, 18, 19 points."

[dontforgetpoland]

7. I don't aspect us to lose Pa, but I suspect ...

that a lot of people change affiliations because Pa had a closed primary.

In other Pa registration report, I know that Dem is killing Rep in voter registration after the primaries as well.

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Obama will win PA by 7-10 points.