Posted by Winners
- U.S. Rep. Artur Davis – he endorsed the right guy, deserves some credit for the Obama win, and bested Joe Reed and much of the AL Dem establishment (both white and black) who supported Hillary. This primary is not a perfect proxy for a Folsom / Davis gubernatorial primary, but it’s the closest we’ve got and shows that a coalition of African-Americans and whites can defeat a well-known and generally well-liked white candidate in a Democratic primary.
- Alabama voters – we finally have a voice in the process.
- Randy Brinson – the Alabamian’s magic email list helped Huckabee do the unexpected again. Too bad it won’t be enough.
- ALGOP – record turnout, finally turned out more than the Dems in a presidential primary.
- State Democratic Party – record turnout, held their own despite having no local races to drive turnout.
- Hillary Clinton – she lost by 14 percentage points but in applying the arcane rules of the Democratic Party, a little ginseng root, some wing of bat, she may actually get half of the delegates assigned in Tuesday’s election. Jim Spearman of the Alabama Democratic Party tells the Parlor that the unofficial tally shows delegates to be assigned like this:
District CD1 CD2 CD3 CD4 CD5 CD6 CD7 Total Obama 2 2 3 1 2 2 5 17 Clinton 2 2 2 4 3 2 2 17
Losers
- Joe Reed – Dem power broker couldn’t deliver even a respectable minority of the black vote to win the state for Clinton.
- John McCain – Barely lost the state and did little to contest it. If he puts a few resources here, he claims the state and a feather in his cap that shows he can win among conservative, Deep South Republicans. Instead, the primary props up the perception that his support is lukewarm South of the Mason Dixon.
- And finally, an observation that the collapse of Romney, Thompson, and Giulani will leave many state GOP bigwigs on the sidelines at the GOP convention. Huckabee delegates may not be the glitterati of the party, but they’ll be in St. Paul for the convention, while the likes of Jerry Lathan, Kay Ivey, Jabo Waggoner and other usual power brokers will be on the outside looking in.
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I found it interesting that more Democrats voted in this Primary, that voted for Lucy Baxley for Gov.
Those are just the District level delegate assignments. My understanding is that Obama should win by 2 pledged delegates by taking 6 of 11 at-large delegates and 4 of 7 pledged Party Leader and Elected Official delegates, in addition to his 17 of 34 district level delegates.
Still, 25 of 52 seems like a win for Hillary given the size of her win. Counting the superdelegates, she could have the larger Alabama delegation at the convention.
I meant HIS win (or her loss) in that second paragraph.
Folsom’s name, I think, carries a little more clout in Alabama than Hillary’s. If the election had been between Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, that would be a better indicator.
When is Artur going to organize a formidable machine at the local level?
If he would recruit and qualify black candidates in the local races in Jefferson County, he/they would win every Primary race on the ballot, rather than subjugate themselves to the “leftovers” or marching orders of the old, white Democratic establishment that currently runs things.
Look at the numbers in Jefferson County from Tuesday. If I was John Smallwood, Dan Weinrib and Tom King, I’d be mowing Artur’s lawn, washing his car and running errands for him every weekend for job protection.
If he flexes that kind of muscle, THEN I’ll believe the pre-hype about how viable he is as a statewide power figure.
If Spearman is able to estimate that distribution of delegates, why is he grumbling behind the scenes and threatening to ask for a recount?
Hillary may be well-known, but I am not sure she counts as well-liked, even in a Democratic primary. Respected, maybe even a little bit feared, but probably not well-liked.