Clinton’s easy win in Ohio was a surprise

Plenty of politicians and pundits told me the day after Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary in Ohio that they knew U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was going to easily beat U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

I’ll readily acknowledge I was very surprised by the solid 10-percentage-point victory. I have no choice but to do so. I wrote in last week’s column that people shouldn’t be shocked if Clinton “loses Ohio or ekes out a victory in a state in which she needs a strong win.”

I guess I misread that one a bit.

With Obama spending about twice as much as Clinton on television commercials, attracting larger crowds to his stump speeches and having incredible momentum leading to Tuesday’s primary, his losing Ohio by 10 percentage points was something I didn’t expect.

Clinton came to the Mahoning Valley three times, and delivered speeches at two public rallies, including one Saturday at Austintown Fitch High School.

Obama came to the Valley once.

The number of people at his rally at Youngstown State University was considerably more than the combined total of those at Clinton’s two public events.

Apparently Clinton supporters don’t bother to go to rallies.

Now the talk switches to Clinton having all the momentum, even though she still trails Obama in the delegate count and gained only a few more delegates than her opponent after Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island.

The delegate system established by the Democrats is going to make it difficult for Clinton to catch Obama.

The focus now shifts to Pennsylvania and its April 22 primary. Again, the system works against Clinton even if she wins in Pennsylvania, something that is expected at least at this time.

Election-day problems

It wouldn’t be a primary in Ohio if there weren’t an election problems.

A few counties remain ill equipped to handle elections. That causes the rest of us to sit around waiting for results because of the contention that it wouldn’t be fair to release that information while some people haven’t yet voted.

There were problems in Sandusky and Cuyahoga counties — no surprise that the good folks in Cuyahoga are still struggling to run smooth elections — so the rest of the elections boards in Ohio had to wait to give voting totals. Both counties had precincts that didn’t have enough paper ballots.

Another problem in Cuyahoga was polling places ran short of pens.

No, I’m not kidding.

They didn’t have enough pens.

Try to follow the logic behind holding up the release of voting totals in 86 other counties until the polls in those two counties are closed.

A voter in Cuyahoga County learns that absentee totals in Van Wert, Muskingum and Morrow counties have Clinton with a big lead. That voter then decides her vote for Obama is worthless. That voter then goes home, undoubtedly a place with plenty of pens, and sulks.

Besides the huge Clinton turnout, including support from 71 percent of those who voted in Columbiana County’s Democratic primary, no election results in the Valley were shocking.

It was a mild surprise that Lou D’Apolito defeated Judge Timothy Franken for the latter’s seat on the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court bench. When D’Apolito asked me Monday how he would do in the primary, I told him at worst a strong second.

Both he and Judge Franken ran good campaigns for the seat. When it comes to elections, Judge Franken, who the governor selected to fill a vacancy on the bench in September, is just not electable. He’s lost a number of judicial races as a challenger. The power of incumbency apparently did little to help his cause.

On a Valley-related note, it sure is looking like a slam-dunk victory for state Sen. John Boccieri, a New Middletown Democrat, in the 16th Congressional District race which has Canton as its epicenter.

Boccieri breezed through his primary while state Sen. J. Kirk Schuring of Canton barely won the Republican primary for that seat.