McCain's feeble showing didn't hurt local Republicans
By: Tom Kacich
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
It's not clear from Tuesday's election returns if Champaign County really liked Barack Obama or really disliked John McCain.
For the most part, Obama's vote totals Tuesday were ahead of John Kerry's 2004 numbers.
But not only was McCain consistently running behind George W. Bush's 2004 numbers, he was running behind – in many cases far behind – local Republican candidates. With most of the precincts counted, McCain's county totals were about 11,000 votes behind the leading Republican vote-getter, U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson of Urbana. McCain also was running significantly behind the county auditor, circuit clerk, coroner and recorder of deeds candidates.
Obama was a popular choice Tuesday in Champaign County – and probably will go down as the most popular presidential candidate in the history of Champaign County – but he wasn't even the leading vote-getter on the county's Democratic ticket. Both U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and State's Attorney Julia Rietz were racking up more votes.
The same pattern emerged in other area counties. In Douglas County, McCain's 5,001 votes were less than Johnson's 6,446. In the city of Danville, the GOP presidential candidate was running behind not only Johnson but also state Rep. Bill Black and Vermilion County Coroner Peggy Johnson and state's attorney candidate Randy Brinegar. In Piatt County, McCain trailed fellow Republicans Johnson and State's Attorney-elect Dana Rhoades. In Coles County, he finished with fewer votes than Johnson and the GOP coroner candidate.
Champaign County Republicans didn't let the seeming Obama landslide swamp their local candidates.
"We continued to pound the mantra that all politics is local," Republican Party chairman Jason Barickman said. "We put on a full-court press for our local people. If someone came in looking for a John McCain yard sign, we asked them if they'd take one for (auditor candidate) Brad Jones or one of our targeted county board candidates."
Meanwhile, Obama did a lot better in East Central Illinois than the last Illinois Democrat to run for president.
Based on unofficial and incomplete returns, Obama won four of the 12 counties in East Central Illinois: Champaign, Coles, Macon and McLean. Overall in those 12 counties he had 147,523 votes to 149,207 for McCain.
That's a big improvement over the record of Adlai Stevenson, who not only lost every county in East Central Illinois in his unsuccessful presidential bids in 1952 and 1956, but also lost the county in which he had grown up – McLean – with about 35 percent of the vote.
In 1952, the sitting Illinois governor lost his own state to Republican Dwight Eisenhower, 55 percent to 45 percent. In the 12-county area of East Central Illinois, Stevenson lost 68 percent to 32 percent. In Vermilion County, Eisenhower got 57.5 percent. In Champaign County, he received 65.9 percent.
Four years later, Stevenson lost Illinois 59.5 percent to 40.5 percent. In East Central Illinois, he was clobbered 62.9 percent to 37.1 percent. In Vermilion County, Eisenhower got 59.6 percent, and he received a record 67.1 percent in Champaign County.
Stevenson even lost McLean County – with just 35.2 percent in 1952 and 33.3 percent in 1956.
He wasn't the first downstate Illinoisan running for president to be treated fairly rudely by the home folks. Although in 1860 Abraham Lincoln beat Democrat Stephen Douglas in Illinois, 171,106 to 158,254, Lincoln's margin in central Illinois was much closer.
He lost his home county, Sangamon, by 42 votes. And in East Central Illinois, Lincoln beat Douglas, 17,439 to 14,349. But he also lost Edgar, Macon and Moultrie counties that year.
Four years later, he lost Sangamon County by 380 votes and also fell in Edgar, Ford and Moultrie counties. But Lincoln won his home state 54 percent to 46 percent over Democrat George B. McClellan. And in East Central Illinois his victory margin was 19,953 to 14,584.
Tom Kacich is a News-Gazette editor and columnist. His column appears on Wednesdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 351-5221 or kacich<@>news-gazette.com.