ANDERSON — America awoke Wednesday morning to find itself forever changed.
Many called the election of Barack Obama historic. Some even hailed him as a political savior.
But instead of water into wine, Obama’s miracle was turning red into blue. In Madison County and all across the U.S., so-called swing voters cast their vote for the Democratic nominee instead of Republican John McCain.
“When I looked at the results, it looked like a lot of split-ticket results,” said Ron McNabney, chairman of the Madison County Democrat Party. “I think that today in Madison County, the independent voter determines the outcome of elections. Not to say that the Democrat and Republican voters are not important, but the independents voted for Barack, and I think they voted for Barack because of the condition of our country during the last eight years of a Republican in power.”
Obama won over many voters with his confidence and charisma, and was often referred to as a “rock star” candidate. He beat McCain handily on Tuesday, with a 364-163 advantage in electoral votes, wresting from Republican control the states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.
And, of course, Indiana, a state that had famously voted Republican in 10 previous presidential elections, dating back to Richard Nixon in 1968.
Obama won just 15 of Indiana’s 92 counties, but those counties — Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Starke, St. Joseph, Tippecanoe, Delaware, Marion, Vigo, Vermillion, Monroe, Vanderburgh, Spencer, Perry and Madison — comprise 44 percent of the state’s population. In the end, Obama earned 49.93 percent of the statewide popular vote (1,367,503 votes) to McCain’s 48.98 percent (1,341,667).
The margin was greater in Madison County, where Obama garnered 52.49 percent of the vote (30.152 votes) to 45.96 percent for McCain (26,403). It was a far cry from 2004 and 2000, when Republican George W. Bush dominated John Kerry (58.9 percent to 39.62 percent) and Al Gore (53.5 percent to 44.82 percent).
Obama’s local supporters separated into teams to canvass homes, check hourly poll tallies and study voting records from previous years.
“It got down to the nitty-gritty,” said volunteer Marilyn Goree, who coordinated efforts at the polls. “If there were lines still at the polling places, we had to go out and tell voters to stay in line and don’t get out of line.”
Obama won all but a handful of precincts in Anderson, an area fractured in the 2004 election. Elwood, Alexandria and Van Buren Township reversed their partisan stance, throwing their support behind Obama. Precincts in parts of Lafayette, Union and Green townships went from red to blue.
While grass-roots organization lay at the heart of Obama’s campaign, support for McCain seemed to come from the top down.
Madison County Republican Central Committee Chairman Kevin Sulc said the national campaign joined first with Gov. Mitch Daniels’ committee.
“The focus was some door-to-door work but primarily was phone calls,” Sulc said. “Every independent and Republican and even moderately Democrat was called at least one time.”
McNabney characterized the change as more than the cyclical ebb and flow of partisan political favor.
“I don’t think it’s cyclical, I think it depends on the situation and it depends on the quality of the candidate,” he said. “I was very impressed with Barack during the campaign. I read his book, ‘The Audacity of Hope.’ It was an outstanding book, explaining with the issues facing our country, like globalization, as well as anyone has. I hope that he can restore America for our children.”
Scott L. Miley contributed to this report.
Election 2012
BLUE COUNTY: Obama bends electoral map
- Election 2012
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