United States presidential election in Connecticut, 2008

United States presidential election in Connecticut, 2008
Connecticut
November 4, 2008
 
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 7 0
Popular vote 997,773 629,428
Percentage 60.59% 38.22%

County Results
  Obama—60-70%
  Obama—50-60%
President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

Elections in Connecticut

The 2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 4, 2008 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 7 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Connecticut was won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama with a 22.4% margin of victory. Connecticut was one of the six states that had every county—including traditionally Republican Litchfield County—go for Obama, the others being Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Connecticut has not voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988 when the state was carried by George H.W. Bush over Michael Dukakis.

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

There were 17 news organizations who made state by state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

  1. D.C. Political Report: Democrat[1]
  2. Cook Political Report: Solid Democrat[2]
  3. Takeaway: Solid Obama[3]
  4. Election Projection: Solid Obama[4]
  5. Electoral-vote.com: Strong Democrat[5]
  6. Washington Post: Solid Obama[6]
  7. Politico: Solid Obama[7]
  8. Real Clear Politics: Solid Obama[8]
  9. FiveThirtyEight.com: Solid Obama[6]
  10. CQ Politics: Safe Democrat[9]
  11. New York Times: Solid Democrat[10]
  12. CNN: Safe Democrat[11]
  13. NPR: Solid Obama[6]
  14. MSNBC: Solid Obama[6]
  15. Fox News: Democrat[12]
  16. Associated Press: Democrat[13]
  17. Rasmussen Reports: Safe Democrat[14]

Polling

Barack Obama won every single poll taken in the state, and every one of them by a double digit margin of victory.

Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $3,966,985. Barack Obama raised $9,727,617.[15]

Advertising and visits

Obama spent $730,335 while McCain spent nothing on the state.[16] Neither campaign visited the state.[17]

Analysis

Connecticut is a part of New England, an area of the country that has recently turned into a Democratic stronghold. The state went Republican in every election but two from 1952 to 1988. However, Bill Clinton narrowly carried it in 1992, and the state has not been seriously contested since. McCain ceded the state to Obama early on, despite Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman's endorsement.

In 2006, Democrats knocked off two incumbent Republicans and picked up two U.S. House seats in CT-02 and CT-05 (Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy, respectively). Although then-Governor M. Jodi Rell and Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele were both moderate Republicans, all other statewide offices were held by Democrats. Democrats also enjoyed a supermajority status in both chambers of the Connecticut state legislature.

In 2008, Democrat Jim Himes defeated incumbent Republican Christopher Shays, who was at the time the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New England, for the U.S. House seat in Connecticut's 4th congressional district. This was largely because Obama carried the district with a staggering 60 percent of the vote—one of his best performances in a Republican-held district. Shays' defeat meant that for the first time in almost 150 years, there were no Republican Representatives from New England. In no other part of the country is a major political party completely shut out. At the same time at the state level, Democrats picked up six seats in the Connecticut House of Representatives and one seat in the Connecticut Senate.

Results

United States presidential election in Connecticut, 2008
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Barack Obama 997,773 60.59% 7
Republican John McCain 629,428 38.22% 0
Independent Ralph Nader 19,162 1.16% 0
Constitution (Write-in) Chuck Baldwin (Write-in) 311 0.02% 0
Green (Write-in) Cynthia A. McKinney (Write-in) 90 0.01% 0
Socialist (Write-in) Brian Moore (Write-in) 19 0.00% 0
Socialist Workers (Write-in) Roger Calero (Write-in) 10 0.00% 0
Totals 1,646,793 100.00% 7
Voter turnout (Voting Age population) 62.1%

Results breakdown

By county

County Obama% Obama# McCain% McCain# Others% Others# Total
Fairfield 58.73% 242,936 40.55% 167,736 0.71% 2,955 413,627
Hartford 65.18% 268,721 33.71% 138,984 1.11% 4,593 412,298
Litchfield 51.63% 51,041 46.71% 46,173 1.66% 1,643 98,857
Middlesex 60.78% 52,983 37.76% 32,918 1.46% 1,276 87,177
New Haven 61.10% 233,589 37.84% 144,650 1.06% 4,072 382,311
New London 59.92% 74,776 38.86% 48,491 1.23% 1,529 124,796
Tolland 59.70% 45,053 38.78% 29,266 1.52% 1,148 75,467
Windham 56.47% 28,673 41.77% 21,210 1.76% 896 50,779

By congressional district

Barack Obama carried all five of Connecticut’s congressional districts.

District McCain Obama Representative
1st 32.73% 65.95% John Larson
2nd 40.07% 58.48% Joe Courtney
3rd 36.28% 62.50% Rosa DeLauro
4th 39.64% 59.70% Christopher Shays (110th Congress)
Jim Himes (111th Congress)
5th 42.40% 56.34% Chris Murphy

Electors

Technically the voters of CT cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. CT is allocated 7 electors because it has 5 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 7 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 7 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for President and Vice President. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them.[18] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008 to cast their votes for President and Vice President. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 7 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:[19]

  1. Shirley Steinmetz
  2. Nicholas Paindiris
  3. Andrea Jackson Brooks
  4. Jim Ezzes
  5. Lorraine McQueen
  6. Deborah McFadden
  7. Ken Delacruz

References

  1. ↑ D.C.'s Political Report: The complete source for campaign summaries
  2. ↑ Presidential | The Cook Political Report
  3. ↑ Adnaan (2008-09-20). "Track the Electoral College vote predictions". The Takeaway. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
  4. ↑ Election Projection: 2008 Elections - Polls, Projections, Results
  5. ↑ Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Based on Takeaway
  7. ↑ POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com
  8. ↑ RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map
  9. ↑ CQ Politics | CQ Presidential Election Maps, 2008
  10. ↑ "Electoral College Map". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  11. ↑ "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  12. ↑ "Winning the Electoral College". Fox News. April 27, 2010.
  13. ↑ roadto270
  14. ↑ Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports™
  15. ↑ Presidential Campaign Finance
  16. ↑ "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
  18. ↑ "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  19. ↑ U. S. Electoral College 2008 Election - Certificates

See also