Richardson Wins McHenry County Democratic Party Penny Poll

In the McHenry County Democratic Party’s Penny Presidential Poll Bill Richardson beat out Barack Obama by $12.62. $409.70 worth of votes were cast.

My guess is that the Richardson supporters stayed around until the end—maybe they were even manning the booth at closing time.

In any event, in this show of support intensity, the Richardson folks showed they care more about their candidate that the Obama aficionados do.

And, in politics, intensity counts.

It may mean that there will be more grass roots activity on Richardson’s behalf than on Obama’s. Of course, Obama won’t need grass roots support to win the Illinois presidential preference poll.

RICHARDSON HANGS ON TO TAKE THE DEM PENNY POLL

CRYSTAL LAKE—Despite a strong surge in support for Senator Barack Obama in the final day of the McHenry County Democrats Presidential Penny Poll at the County Fair, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson hung on to eke out a close victory in the end of 5 days of voting.

Voting was brisk all day Sunday. Lively, sometimes passionate, discussions erupted in front of the display of jars representing all eight Democratic presidential candidates.

Results were based on the total contributions to each candidate and were tallied daily during the fair, as were cumulative results. Voters could contribute as much as they liked and vote as often as they wished. One cent equaled one vote.

While the poll was far from scientific, it offered an opportunity to examine the Democratic Presidential field. “Every one had fun,” Party Chair Thomas Cynor reported, “As for drawing any conclusion from the results, I leave that up to others.”

Here are the final cumulative vote totals as of 5:30 Sunday night when voting ended:

  • Richardson –15,323
  • Obama – 14,061
  • Clinton – 4,957
  • Edwards – 1,417
  • Biden – 1,314
  • Gravel – 739
  • Kucinich – 100
  • Dodd – 559

A total of $409.70 was collected from all candidate jars. The proceeds will go to support the work of the McHenry County Democratic Party.

As I pointed out in my first article about the Dems’ polls, and last year, this reminds me of what I did for the McHenry County Young Republican booth in 1968. The only difference was that we didn’t limit the poll to Republican Party candidates up. We had jars for the Democrats and George Wallace.

A Democrat did not think to ask where the money was going until Saturday afternoon. After I told him it would go to the YR’s, there were many fewer votes for Democratic candidates.

= = = = =
In the top photograph is the Bill Richardson jar for the Penny Poll on Thursday night. You will note that it actually has pennies in it. As you can see below, by Sunday dollar bills were showing up.

Next you can see Woodstock’s Sandra South is seen putting a dollar (100 votes) in the Hillary Clinton jar. Unshown is her other arm putting $1 in the Barack Obama jar. She’ll have to make up her mind by February 5th, primary election day.

In the second photo, McHenry County Democratic Central Committee Secretary Carolyn Quinn is seen talking with fair goers.

On the bottom is a picture of Patrick Murfin, the Democratic Party’s publicist, among other roles. He’s wearing an Obama button.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.


Comments

Richardson Wins McHenry County Democratic Party Penny Poll — 2 Comments

  1. Sally Quinn was a Washington journalist of days gone by (at least I haven’t heard of her lately). Carolyn Quinn is the tireless Democratic County Secretary.

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