Guest Column: Making a Difference

On Tuesday, Feb. 5, stretching late into the night, American voters in 24 states and American Samoa voted in the presidential primaries and caucuses. The Democrats chose between Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) while the Republicans had four choices: Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.), Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ariz.), and Rep. Ron Paul (Tx.).

Never before have so many states voted on one day in primary contests, and voter turnout was exceptionally high in most of them. Most of these states moved their primaries earlier than they had ever been held before, trying to vote in time to make a difference - before the early contests had winnowed people out of the race.

The presidential candidates tried to meet the Super Tuesday voters. They zigzagged across the country, holding rallies in large cities, bombarding the states with political ads and doing dozens of satellite news interviews each day. They appeared on the morning shows, on the comedy shows and on the Sunday morning interview shows. There is some evidence that voters rewarded candidate visits. Obama held four campaign events in Delaware in the last month, and Clinton held none. Delaware voted for Obama. But there wasn't time to meet many of the voters. There wasn't time to answer questions. There wasn't time to speak specifically about the needs of every state. From the start of the process in the Iowa caucuses of Jan. 3, through the voting in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, Michigan and Florida to Super Tuesday, there were only 33 days.

In those 33 days, many candidates dropped out of the race. Four Republicans, including New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and four Democrats withdrew from the race.

The Super Tuesday voters didn't get exactly what they wanted, a chance to look over the candidates up close in their own states, a chance to get to know them, a chance to ask them tough questions. The exposure to candidates was superficial, just a glimpse. Clinton had widespread name recognition, voters didn't know Obama well, and they wanted to know more. McCain already had good name recognition, and voters didn't know Romney or Huckabee well.

Still, the crowds and lines of eager voters showed their enthusiasm about this chance to vote for candidates before the contest was finished. As one Massachusetts voter said, "There's a choice on both sides this time, and things like blogs and Facebook have gotten more young people politically involved." Turnout surged among voters under 30.

Whatever the flaws in this new virtual national primary, this massive 24-state event, it clearly triggered greater voter excitement and political participation than did primaries of the past. And in the Republican Party, at least, Super Tuesday produced greater clarity about who the nominee would be. McCain now has 663 pledged of the 1,191 total delegates necessary to secure the nomination, which will make him hard to beat. Romney has 261 pledged delegates, Huckabee has 173, and Paul has 16. While McCain has more than half the delegates he needs, Huckabee's unexpected wins in 5 states have focused more attention on this articulate rival. And Romney's success in seven states, especially in the West, keeps this candidate in the race as well, competing for conservative voters and challenging McCain on economic issues.

The Democratic primaries of Feb. 5 resulted in the two major candidates having close to an equal number of delegates. The Democrats use a system of proportional allocation of delegates based on the number of Congressional districts they win, so both winners and losers often receive delegates in a state. There are also superdelegates, mainly elected officeholders, who serve as delegates. While the total count is still in flux at press time, the figures are approximately 845 delegates for Clinton and 765 delegates for Obama of the 2,025 needed to get the nomination. The popular vote underlines the fact that this contest is very close. Of 14 million votes cast, the difference between Clinton and Obama was only 35,000 votes, less than 1 percent. There is a long way to go before this race is decided.

And so, you voters in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., this is your chance. Next Tuesday, Feb.12, is the "Potomac Primary." This week the candidates will be advertising heavily in the region and coming here to woo you. You can influence who the nominees will be. You, too, can make a difference.

Kathleen Kendall is a research professor of communication. She can be reached at kkendall@umd.edu. Students Alysse Glovinsky and Jennifer Young contributed to this column.