Kerry Got 5% Of GOP Vote In NH (Over 3,000 Write-Ins)

[DrFunkenstein]

Under New Hampshire law, only Democrats and independents were permitted to participate in Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary. That meant that Republicans who wanted to register their opposition to Bush had to do so in their own party's primary. A remarkable number of them did just that.

One in seven Republican primary voters cast ballots for candidates other than Bush, holding the president to just 85 percent of the 62,927 ballots cast. Few of the anti-Bush votes went to the 13 unknown Republicans whose names appeared on GOP ballots along with the president's. Instead, top Democratic contenders reaped write-in votes.

US Senator John Kerry, who won the Democratic primary, came in second to Bush in the Republican contest, winning 3,009 votes. Kerry's name was written in on almost 5 percent of all GOP ballots.

Who were these Republican renegades for Kerry? People like 61-year-old retired teacher David Anderson. A Vietnam veteran, Anderson told New Hampshire's Concord Monitor that he wrote in Kerry's name because the senator, also a veteran, understands the folly of carrying on a failed war. "I feel a commander, the president of the United States, ought to be a veteran," explained Anderson, who says his top priority is getting US troops out of Iraq.

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=1221

[lastknowngood]

1. I would keep that quite if I were you

Kerry is already trying to break away from the bush lite label.
If the repugs are voting for him in primary will they be voting for the shrub?

[Joseph Thule]

5. huh?

[snoochie]

6. That's what I was thinking

They voted for 'the liberal' (as they're calling him)? :shrug:

[PA-DEM]

2. This spells trouble for Bush

I believe we only lost NH by 1-2%. You add those republicans and the high turnout of independent voters and this barely red state is a blue state.

[kurtyboy]

24. Geez, I just did the math--If all we turn is NH and

Nevada, the Electoral College is tied 269-269! I don't EVEN want a part of that Constitutional Crisis.....

[Joseph Thule]

3. That is fucking incredible.

Could foreshadow the general election.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. I love the "spin" on this one

If Kerry gets Repub votes, he is "bush-lite"
If Dean gets Repub votes, it is because he has "crossover appeal."

[Joseph Thule]

7. lmao yes

[JohnKleeb]

10. double standards

You get used to them NSMA.
WB Doc Funk.

[DrFunkenstein]

18. Bridge-Building Liberal (Sounds Awesome To Me)

I'll take that over a polarizing centrist anyday!

Hey John! I'm absolutely thrilled to see that you have expanded your progressive circle to include Kerry.

:toast:

[JohnKleeb]

23. Iowa helped seal the deal, been wearing this ever since the shocker

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. John was the top Democrat in not one but 2 NH primaries Tuesday!!!

:)

[sistersofmercy]

19. Excellent point!

:toast:

[ibegurpard]

9. Makes sense to me

If I was a Republican, I'd sure as hell rather have Kerry to run against Bush.

[Joseph Thule]

11. Yes, so they'd write him in on a Republican ballot?

Which wouldn't even go against the other Democrats.

[George_Bonanza]

17. Bingo

[ibegurpard]

21. There ARE stupid people out there, you know

"vote for John Kerry...we want to run against him!" So they do...they just don't realize they needed to do it in the DEMOCRATIC primary.

[George_Bonanza]

25. Yet again with those stupid Iowans that did not vote for Dean

[ibegurpard]

27. Ummm...this is New Hampshire

And I thought we were talking about Republicans who wrote in Kerry in their Republican Primary not primary voters as a whole.

:shrug:

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. people will vote for who looks like a president

Kerry looks the most presidential, not just among the field of Democrats, but among any living politician I've ever seen.

If anyone just LOOKS like they were created by God to be president, as asburd as that sounds, it's John Kerry.

And I think he's going to have HUGE crossover appeal. I see Independents and frustrated Republicans flocking to him in droves.

[Joseph Thule]

13. Yup. He has hair, height and Vietnam.

It's hard to tag him as "Massachusetts uber-liberal" also. Labelling doesn't stick to him. He transcends it.

[blm]

14. This is JUST as I predicted 3 years ago.

This is going to break the stranglehold the GOP has on white male voters.

This is the year when white males finally join with the rest of this nation and realize that all boats can be lifted with Democrats in the White House.

[sistersofmercy]

15. Hehe take that bush*

Didn't bush* just do a visit to NH? In response to this revelation, no doubt. I got news for the misadministration, Republicans are falling out of line with the little ol' nit wit*.
I love that picture of JK. Beautiful!

[Jackpine Radical]

16. It's not the 5% for Kerry--

it's the 14% against Bush in a REPUBLICAN primary that excites me. I don't see a way to draw many conclusions about which Dem got the votes, but I sure as Hell read this as a protest against Bush, coming right at him out of his own party primary. Obviously, any Republicans attempting to spoil the Dedmocratic nominating process would have re-registered and voted in the Dem primary.

[CreekDog]

22. These Write-Ins Are More Than The Margin in 2000 AND...

Think about how motivated these voters are. After all, they turned out for their primary, voted against a sitting president in their own party and wrote in opponents in the other party who oppose the president. Really is quite something.

[stickdog]

20. Oh, Kerry got way more than 5%! I'd estimate he got ~25% of the Repuke

vote. You're not counting all of the Republican leaning independents who crossed over to vote for him.

Note that around 150,000 NH voters voted in the 2000 Democratic primary, but about 220,000 voted in the 2004 Democratic Primary. And this isn't because there was a higher overall turnout in 2004. Well over 200,000 NH voters voted in the 2000 REPUBLICAN primary!

[Timahoe]

26. Don't get too excited, Gary Hart got 5.3%

of the vote in the 1984 Republican primary against Ronald Reagan..

http://www.primarymonitor.com/pastresults/pastresults.shtml#1984

[incapsulated]

28. heh

NH is just weird. I ignore stats coming out of that State's primaries.