Chris Graff: Douglas, Obama produce historic election results

Chris Graff: Douglas, Obama produce historic election results
by Chris Graff

VBM Political Coumnist
That Democrat Barack Obama won 67 percent support from Vermonters is stunning. That Republican Jim Douglas fought off the Obama tide to gain 55 percent of the tally in the governors race is amazing.
Obama's win in the state spanned the spectrum:
- Exit polling showed he won 95 percent of Vermont Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 11 percent of Republicans;

- 93 percent of those Vermonters who consider themselves liberal voted for Obama while 65 percent of the moderates and even 32 percent of the conservatives backed his candidacy;

- 79 percent of those aged 18-29 backed Obama, while 58 percent of those 30-44, 65 percent of those 45-64 and 66 percent of those 65 and older did as well;
- Those who consider the economy the most important issue chose Obama over John McCain 58-40, while 88 percent of those who considered the war in Iraq the most important issue voted for Obama as did 75 percent of those who felt energy policy is the most critical issue.
To put Obama's strength into perspective, consider that John Kerry won 59 percent of the vote in 2004 and Al Gore won 51 percent backing in 2000.
While Obama, a liberal Democrat, was rolling up the big numbers in the state, Douglas, a moderate Republican, was doing the same and like Obama, the governor was doing so by picking up support from all ages, all parties, all points of view:
- He won 94 percent of the Republicans, 51 percent of the independents and 27 percent of the Democrats;
- 88 percent of Vermonters who consider themselves conservative voted for Douglas, while 58 percent of the moderates and 18 percent of the liberals backed his candidacy;
- 53 percent of the men and 52 percent of the women backed Douglas and he won every age group;
- A strong 59 percent of those who picked the economy as the most important issue in the election voted for Douglas.
What's interesting with that last statistic is that two years ago Democrat Scudder Parker bested Douglas among those voters who felt the economy was not doing well.
So the question that everyone was asking the morning after the election was how did he do it? How did Jim Douglas manage to win a firm majority while Vermonters were voting overwhelmingly for Barack Obama?
The general answer is that for the past 20 years Vermonters have focused more on the person than the party in casting their votes. It is not uncommon to see individual voters backing a mix of Republicans, Democrats and independents. Nowhere is the emphasis on personality over party more evident than in the campaigns of independent Bernie Sanders.
As to this specific race, however, we will never really know if Douglas' strong victory was a positive vote for him - or an expression of dissatisfaction with Democrat Gaye Symington and independent Anthony Pollina. The best guess is that it is a little of both, that voters simply decided that Douglas was the best of the three to steer the state through today's recession.
VBM Political Columnist Chris Graff, a former Vermont bureau chief of The Associated Press and host of VPT's Vermont This Week, is now vice president for communications at National Life Group. He is author of, Dateline Vermont: Covering and uncovering the newsworthy stories that shaped a state - and influenced a nation.