Wednesday, November 5, 2008 9:22 PM CST
Obama's momentum doesn't trickle down to local Dems
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — In an election that saw the Democratic presidential candidate favored by most of Coles County’s voters, local members of the party didn’t do as well.
A high voter turnout highlighted what county Clerk Sue Rennels called “a dream election” with lots of interest but no problems because of the larger number of voters than usual, even for a presidential election year.
Coles County was the only county in the area to favor president-elect Barack Obama, yet voters turned away all but one local Democrat who had a contested race.
That included three-term Coroner Mike Nichols, marking the first time in 10 years that an incumbent in an office elected countywide failed to win re-election. The last time that happened was in 1998, when Democrat Ron Scott defeated incumbent Republican Jim Kimball in the race for sheriff.
Obama’s 51 percent of the vote in Coles County topped the vote percentage for former President Bill Clinton, who won the majority in the county both times he ran, noted county Democratic Party Chairman Robert Webb.
“We’re pleased with the top of the ticket,” Webb said. “The coattails weren’t long enough to carry everyone.”
Nichols faced a “tough race” against a “well-liked opponent” in Republican Ed Schniers, while the party’s Coles County Board candidates also had well-known opponents, he added. Meanwhile, Webb said he thought Steve’s Ferguson’s re-election as state’s attorney in a three-way race showed that voters saw how well he conducts himself in the office.
“He had a tough fight and did quite well,” Webb said.
County Republican Party Chairman Mike Weaver credited the county GOP candidates for campaigning hard.
“It was kind of a bittersweet election for us,” Weaver said. “I wish the national ticket had done as well as we did locally.”
He praised Schniers for going door-to-door, walking in parades and making other public appearances. He also noted that it wasn’t uncommon to see a sign for Schniers alongside one for Ferguson in the same yard.
“It wasn’t easy,” Weaver said. “It’s how you do it. It shows Ed’s ability to cross boundaries.”
Weaver also said he had “positive feelings” about the county board election, which meant the addition of Republicans Mark Degler, Stan Metzger and Clint Bays will leave Republicans with 11 members on the 12-member board. Democrat Dan Lawrence was re-elected without opposition Tuesday, as was Republican John Bell.
Weaver said it was difficult to gauge Paul Komada’s chances for state’s attorney because no one knew if Green Party candidate Todd Reardon would pull votes away from him.
The coroner’s race also had three candidates and included Green Party candidate Michael Snow. In the other countywide office elected Tuesday, incumbent Circuit Clerk Vicki Kirkpatrick, a Republican, ran unopposed.
The county’s voter turnout Tuesday was nearly 71 percent, well above the average of about 63 percent for the last few presidential elections. Rennels said her office received phone calls throughout the day, but they were from people wanting to check on the locations of their polling places.
“I can not even tell you what almost a dream election this was for us,” Rennels said. “There was not a major problem.”
Election judges reported lines of people waiting for the polls to open Tuesday morning at every polling place in the county, she said, something that one person who’s been an election judge since 1960 said she’d never seen before.
There were also lines at the two polling places on the Eastern Illinois University campus where most EIU students vote, something “almost unheard of,” Rennels also said. Those locations, the university union and the Newman Catholic Center, are where turnout has traditionally been the lowest in the county, she said.
Specific voter turnout figures for the precincts were not available as of Wednesday afternoon.
Rennels said she or someone from her office visited each polling place two or three times Tuesday to make sure they had the correct ballot styles they needed and to check on any problems or questions.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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