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A split decision:
How tally helped McCain win, Obama rally

 
By Chris Casteel | Published: February 7, 2008    Comment on this article Leave a comment

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won all five congressional districts and every county but one in the Oklahoma Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, which helped her collect 24 of the 38 delegates allocated based on voting.

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INSIDE
Super Tuesday
•Turnout: Oklahomans went to the polls in record numbers Tuesday, with a "stunning” 752,075 voters casting ballots in the Republican and Democratic primaries.

•Immigration: Tuesday's front-runners all have supported amnesty for illegal immigrants.

•On the trail: What the candidates are doing now.

Page 4A

Who are Oklahoma's ‘super delegates?'
A handful of people are designated "super delegates” by their political parties and can throw their support behind their favorite candidate at the parties' presidential conventions this summer. They include:

Democrats
•Ivan Holmes, chairman, Oklahoma Democratic Party

•Kitti Asberry, vice chairman, Oklahoma Democratic Party

•Jim Frasier, Democratic National Committee member

•Betty McElderry,Democratic National Committee member

•Kalyn Free, appointed by Democratic National Committee

•Jay Parmley, appointed by Democratic National Committee

•Gov. Brad Henry

•U.S. Rep. Dan Boren of Muskogee

•One at-large delegate, who will be appointed by Holmes

Republicans
•Gary Jones, chairman, Oklahoma Republican Party

•Lynn Windel,Republican National Committee member

•Bunny Chambers, Republican National Committee member

Michael McNutt, Capitol Bureau

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Clinton, of New York, narrowly lost the state's biggest county — Oklahoma — to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, but she won the two other counties in the 5th Congressional District — Pottawatomie and Seminole — by wide enough margins to ensure a sweep of the districts.

Clinton won 55 percent of the vote statewide, while Obama, of Illinois, got 31 percent.

Still, Obama picked up 14 delegates in the state.

On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain won a squeaker statewide, but actually won more delegates than Clinton.

The difference is in how the parties allocate delegates, and that difference is the reason McCain has a firm command of the GOP race but the Democratic race is a dead heat.

McCain, of Arizona, got only 37 percent of the vote in Oklahoma but collected 32 of the delegates allocated based on that vote. He got 23 delegates for winning the state and three delegates in each of the three congressional districts he won.

Though former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee finished a close second with 33 percent of the vote and won several counties, mostly in the eastern part of the state, he collected only six delegates, three each in the two congressional districts he won.

National Democratic rules require delegates be allocated proportionately based on voting results, and a candidate who gets 15 percent of the vote in a congressional district can qualify for a delegate.

Republicans have many states that are winner-take-all and others, like Oklahoma, that have variations on that method. The state GOP winner gets all of the at-large delegates, while each congressional district's three delegates are winner-take-all.

By contrast, though Clinton won every congressional district in Oklahoma, she had to share delegates with Obama in each.

The differing formulas gave McCain a huge number of delegates on Tuesday and now, according to the Associated Press, he has just over 700 delegates.

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Related Topics: Politics, U.S. Politics, World Politics, Elections and Voting, U.S. Democratic Party Politics, Political Parties, U.S. Republican Party Politics, Government and Politics, U.S. Conservative Politics, U.S. Liberal Politics, U.S. State Politics, Oklahoma Politics, Georgia State Politics



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