From the Los Angeles Times:
From Pittsburgh in the west to Philadelphia in the southeast, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama scoured the Keystone State for support Monday on the eve of the costliest and most consequential Pennsylvania primary in a generation. ... in a town-hall-style meeting in Blue Bell, a Montgomery County suburb of Philadelphia [Obama] laid out his White House agenda, which would begin with a move to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq. But later, in a rally outside Pittsburgh, he faulted Clinton for airing TV ads suggesting that he was not ready to be president. Today's vote ends a six-week campaign lull, the longest break in balloting since the presidential candidates rang in the New Year with the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The contest has lasted much longer than expected, giving Pennsylvania a prominence the state has not enjoyed since 1976, when former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter beat Sen. Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington to essentially seal the Democratic nomination. The results today are likely to be less decisive, even though the candidates shattered spending records, with more than $12 million going into TV advertising alone.
From the Washington Post:
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama offered Pennsylvania voters their closing arguments on Monday, winding down a nearly two-month campaign in the state ... ..."There are three candidates left," [Obama said]. "Who do you want answering that 3 a.m. phone call: The person who got Iraq wrong or the person who got Iraq right? . . . We need someone who knows how to use diplomacy," he said. "We will make America more safe, that's my commitment when I'm president of the United States of America." In an earlier town hall-style meeting at a community college in suburban Philadelphia, Obama barely mentioned Clinton, suggesting only that her campaign is based on the status quo while his is a true grass-roots movement that would "get out of the typical pattern of the last 20 years." "Not all of us have talked about the need to change the way Washington works," he said. "One of the key distinctions in our campaign is that it has been built from the ground up." ... The state has a two-part primary ballot, with voters choosing a presidential candidate and also picking from a slate of local delegates. Essentially, each of the state's 19 congressional districts runs a separate contest for delegates, weighted according to turnout in recent elections. A total of 103 delegates will be awarded according to each district's popular vote, while the remaining 84 will be distributed according to the statewide popular vote, or as unpledged superdelegates. In Democratic strongholds, such as the 1st and 2nd districts, both in Philadelphia, participation rates are high, and those districts allocate seven and nine delegates, respectively.
From the Associated Press:
Voter excitement over the Democratic presidential nomination contest pushed the party's Pennsylvania registration to record levels. On Tuesday, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are hoping that same fervor translates into votes in the state's presidential primary—the one day that really counts. The primary is the first test of the candidates' strength in six weeks, and will decide the allocation of 158 delegates to this summer's national nominating convention—the largest bloc of delegates still up for grabs. By plane, train, bus and car, the two candidates and their surrogates have been relentless in courting Pennsylvania voters. They spent millions of dollars on TV advertising and squared off in Philadelphia for the 21st debate of their campaign. Statewide turnout would set a modern record for Democratic presidential primaries if more than 2.3 million of the 4.2 million registered party members show up at the polls. The current record—just under 55 percent—was set in 1980, when Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy narrowly defeated then-President Carter in Pennsylvania. ... Since last fall's election, largely due to the aggressive efforts of the two presidential campaigns, the number of Democrats increased by nearly 317,000 as of March 24, the deadline for switching or joining parties. ... Obama's get-out-the-vote plans included dispatching "town criers" in Obama T-shirts to make announcements in the streets and on public buses, and sending out roving "sound trucks" blaring messages over public-address systems. "There's still people out there making up their minds," said Sean Smith, a campaign spokesman for Obama ...
From the Chicago Tribune:
Beth McLennan presses the buttonmaking machine in her Evanston kitchen with the giddy expression of an entrepreneur who has hit on the next big idea. Maybe one day she will channel her abundant energy into a product that actually makes a profit. Her husband, Rob, for one, certainly hopes so. For the moment, money is not on McLennan's mind, except maybe as an afterthought as she tallies up the minus column in her checkbook. In the last six weeks or so, she estimates she has plunked down $1,500 to $2,000 to create thousands of round metal [Obama] buttons with campaign slogans and ship them to Pennsylvania. "I've sent at least 4,200 to Pennsylvania so far," said McLennan, 43, surveying the supplies spread on her kitchen table. Illinois' primary may be long over, but grass-roots activists like McLennan haven't hung up the gloves in the fight to influence the Democratic primaries in other states. The most urgent is Pennsylvania, which votes Tuesday. Then come Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia.
From WRAL TV:
"One-Stop Voting" has lured 32,662 people to the polls across the state since it began last Thursday. The opportunity to register and vote all at once in advance of North Carolina's May 6 primary runs through Saturday, May 3, at 1 p.m. As of Monday morning, 32,662 ballots had been cast in person and an additional 6,219 filed by mail, elections officials reported. Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections, predicted that about one-third of voters statewide will likely cast an early ballot. The early voting was designed for voters who expected to be unable to vote on election day, but it also provides an option for people who want to avoid crowds that day at their local polling places. ... Under a new state law, first-time voters also can register at the early voting locations before casting a ballot at that polling place. ... Primary elections in presidential election years traditionally attract 16 to 31 percent of registered voters, but Bartlett predicted a turnout of more than 40 percent this year because of heightened interest in the tight Democratic race between presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
From the Rapid City Journal:
Sen. Barack Obama is serious about South Dakota …More than a 100 people visited the [Rapid City] office, near the corner of Haines and Anamosa avenues, to sign volunteer registrations, buy Obama paraphernalia such as T-shirts, pins and yard signs and socialize.[Regional field director Melissa] Ness told the crowd a lot of work needs to be done before South Dakota's June primary and more staff would be coming to help after Pennsylvania's primary is finished."We knew there was a lot of enthusiasm," said Deputy State Director Matt McGovern, adding that he has been getting lots of calls asking when Rapid City would open an office."The same excitement you're seeing nationwide, you're seeing here in Rapid City," he said. … Gary Heckenlaible of Rapid City donned his Obama sticker and munched on snacks as Sen. Tom Katus, D-Rapid City, talked briefly at the event."This is something new for South Dakota - to get a turnout like this for a democrat?" Heckenlaible said."Something else is going on that's touched a nerve in people; it's a very trying time and I think people feel that and are responding."Ness reminded the crowd that volunteers were needed for everything from people manning the telephones to host families for incoming staffers.There were also sign-up sheets for people willing to bring food to the office for staffers working "12 hour days and not eating right," Ness said.Judging by the turnout, she didn't expect a problem."South Dakota is fired up," she said.
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