Call me superstitious, but Livingston County Democrats had buttons printed in advance of Tuesday's election that said, "Yes We Did!"
But I wouldn't let anybody bring them out until after the networks called the race for Barack Obama.
They were snapped up in 30 seconds.
A more detailed analysis will come later, but our goal in Livingston County was to increase the vote for the Democratic candidate for president by 10 percent over what John Kerry earned in 2004. In fact, we increased it by 24.5 percent.
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers who worked thousands of hours over the last few months and the decision of the Obama campaign to put a field organizer in Livingston County, Obama tallied 8,355 more votes than Kerry did.
We came very close on our other goal -- carrying the county for Carl Levin. Levin's 45,680 votes were just 546 shy of the Republican's 46,226.
A personal goal was to defeat Cliff Taylor. And Livingston County certainly helped with that.
Diane Hathaway carried Livingston County -- 33,011 to 31,750. For months, I have made it a point to mention the race to anyone who came into our office. And the Obama volunteers carried thousands of pieces of literature about Hathaway to the doors of Democratic supporters. We held three events in the last year in our county publicizing the horrible effects of Cliff Taylor's rulings on Michigan working families. Hathaway's victory is one of the most important events from Tuesday night for average people in Michigan.
But most amazing to me about Tuesday night was the way people at our election night party didn't really want the campaign to end. Many made it a point to say that they want to stay involved.
We can't let this feeling slip away. And we won't.
Yes We Did and Yes We Will!
3 comments:
Yes we did and Obama took 42.39%! Perlberg's question of can the Democrats get to 40%, yes we can and we did!
Congratulations to Team Obama they rocked the world last night!
I for one can breathe easier knowing once my son is off our insurance (3 years from now)) there will be a policy he can buy!
Judy, you kept it all together and I am so proud of you and your fantastic organizational skills!
Man, I'm sorry I missed it. My wife and I were election workers in Howell all day, and I had to get up at 6 a.m. to go to work the next day. We were debating going. Yesterday was a heck of an accomplishment. The next election we will break the Tired Old Party's monopoly on the Board of Commissioners.
Hey...this is Perlberg. I think the 42 percent showing was impressive. In fact, if I may brag, I predicted it Tuesday evening. Just ask Mike Hatty. I think the Hathaway showing in the county was surprising.
You should also look at the 14 percent of the voters who voted straight Democratic. I don't know the history, but I suspect that's higher than past years. The GOP straight party was 24 percent. That means nearly 2 of every 5 voters did the straight-party thing. I find that amazing.
Also, more than 100,000 people voted in Livingston County yesterday, and things went off smoothly. A good day, don't you think?
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