As Democrats around the state begin to come down from the high of Barack Obama’s election as the next President of the United States, many are beginning to ask questions about what happened here in Missouri.
At the top of the list is how Jay Nixon got almost a quarter million more votes than Obama and if Nixon, sitting on a comfortable lead in the polls the last month of the campaign, could have done more to help the man who clearly helped him in urban parts of the state.
Barack Obama — 1,436,814 — Lost by .2%
Jay Nixon — 1,675,270 — Won by 18.9%
So what do you think?
Loading ...Another question is why couldn’t the Missouri Democratic Party better capitalize on what was clearly an ideal environment for major gains for the blue team?
And lastly, if Barack Obama, one of the most popular men in America, couldn’t win in Missouri, is there any hope for a black candidate winning statewide office anytime soon?
AND ONE MORE THING: What was up with the separate victory parties?
I had kind of a different take, but it might end up at the same conclusion.
My reaction was triggered by those sanctimonious people at kmox. A caller might point out that a lot of people voted for Jay Nixon and John McCain—and they respond that yes, there might have been some votes for McCain based on race, but there were real issues, too. Then they add—besides—a lot of black people voted for Obama based on race, too, probably more than voted for McCain based on race.
Well—if Jay Nixon received the same percentage of votes in black areas as Obama—-was it because he had a darker tan than Hulsof? Or were the same people supposedly voting for Obama based on race magically deciding between Hulshof and Nixon based only on issues.
I thought the differences between Nixon and Hulshof were pretty much the same as those between Obama and McCain. So, since there were big differences in whiter areas in support of Obama and Nixon—-I thought race was a significant factor. West Virginia had a much more extreme thing going on, but there were some states where Obama ran better than the democratic governor candidate.
Your post gives me a different way to look at it—Nixon did not make the effort. Hard to prove how much was issues, how much was racial prejudice, and how much was lack of effort outstate for Obama by the state party.
Looking forward to watching the interaction between Nixon and Slay.
I criticized the pd for having all white reporters for politics, (their pictures were displayed on Monday), and while no one responded—I did notice that Sylvester’s comments were on the front page.
I was just discussing this yesterday with one of our friends. When you win by more than 500K votes, you’ve got enough breathing room to spare some votes for others.
Moreover, YOU KNOW you’ve got that breathing room - hence the prevalence of $25K (or $75K) checks.
While Obama’s ground game was certainly exceptional, you can’t tell me that more active support from Nixon couldn’t have gotten BO another 6,000 voters. In Green County alone, Nixon outgained Obama by almost 22,000. While more proactively supporting Obama would have cost him votes in certain areas of the state, it’s pretty clear that Nixon could have afforded it.
Still, I think the real story is the lack of any sort of coattails demonstrated by Nixon. Of all the years, can you explain to me how we only pick up 1 legislative seat in the entire state or tell me why our downballot statewides in open seats only won by 3 or 5 points?
While there is a lot of money given and a lot of attention paid to politics, it’s still a finite amount. With Obama and Nixon sucking so much air out of the room, it suffocated some of our other candidates. In the end it’s pretty unfortunate - Nixon has made his next two years a bit more difficult by not realizing early enough that he was running against Kenny Hulshof ‘08 and not Matt Blunt ‘04.
Are you seriously suggesting that Jay Nixon could have helped Barack Obama in urban areas??? That’s a ridiculous assertion, if indeed thats the point you are trying to make. Maybe Jay could have helped him in places like St. Charles, Jefferson County, and Jackson County where the Obama campaign definitely underperformed.
This just proves that a coordinated campaign is that much more valuable. Its no reason that in such a toxic environment for republican that they flip 2 senate seats out of democrats hands and we only pick up 3 or 4 house seats. The MDP, the House, and Senate campaign committees really need to do some soul searching and find a way to be more relevant in election.
Instead of finger pointing we as democrats need to find a way to build a our party from the ground up. Jay Nixon goes into the governor’s mansion with a republican veto proof majority. That’s not the atmosphere that we wanted to put our governor elect in.
Who’s saying Nixon could’ve helped Barack Obama in urban areas? The areas that Nixon could’ve helped Obama in are the same areas that Claire McCaskill worked very hard for Obama in — Missouri’s rural areas.
Democratic watchers quietly complained ever since Obama clinched the nomination that Nixon was “keeping a safe distance” from Obama (safe for Nixon, that is). In fact, at the Convention in Denver, at least one frank conversation was had with Jay about what was expected of him. It was only after that that Nixon warmed up to Obama — but not to the levels, and in the areas, that we would have liked to see.
I think Jay let the black community down once again.
Geez, what do you want. Some wards voted 99% for Obama in the City. The other one percent probably marked the wrong box. Nixon ran the campaign backwards and laughed all the way to Jeff City on Obama’s wind. Now we will see if he can work with the GOP or whether he will assume the title OTJ?
Jay Nixon supports gun owners rights. I am sure this played well in Jeffco and like counties. If Nixon had campaigned with or for Obama in those areas it may have clouded his preception and resulted in less support.
Obama had plenty of money to utilize other campaign methods with out risking support for the governor elect.
Both won, be happy.
Yes- Jay definately could have done more to help Obama in all area of the state.
In response to some of the previous comments…the Obama campaign DID NOT underperform in Jefferson County. Obama WON Jeff Co by 2664 votes/2.5%! They did an outstanding job here in Jeff Co and won the county that frankly no one thought they could do, a county that Bush won in 2004.
Obama was the one with all the cash, media bias, etc. and made it perfectly clear he wasn’t sharing with any DEMS! This is the Show Me State where we say put up or shut the hell up!
I don’t know what more Jay could have done. He did 2 concerts plus he held a rally in VA. Jay can’t be everywhere all the time. He’s not a politician. He’s a R A P P E R. and Obama won VA.
does anybody still post here, or is everyone still hung-over from the victory party?
How did Jefferson County not underperform??? Correct me if I’m wrong, but their is not one single elected republican in the whole county (on a state or local level). Iron County was won by 50.2% and Jefferson County only outperformed Iron County by .4%, yep a county full of democrats barely pulled the ringer for another democrat. St. Genivieve County (which is righ next door to Jeff Co) went for Barack with over 56% of votes cast. Sorry but Jefferson County was BY far the most disappointing county on the eastern side of the state. Jackson County barely out does Jefferson Countyas significant underperforming counties.
Let’s face it, MO never was a bellwether, since all the past Dems the Show-Me South supported post-JFK were Southern. MO, is more like WV and KY, or the Border South, whereas VA, FL, and even NC are evidently the New South.
When a tobacco tax fails because Phylliss schlafly can come in with a pile of money during the last week and scare the crap out of people about how if they increase tobacco taxes, the money collected will be used to perform abortions—which was what happened in 2006, to keep MO one of the least taxed and most deadly for its citizens regarding tobacco—- it is time to stphu about being a bellwether.