Wednesday, November 07, 2012
By Robert Barnes
A sharply divided America awarded President Barack Obama a second term Tuesday, choosing him over Republican Mitt Romney to lead the repair of an economy that by far remains the country’s biggest concern, the Washington Post projects.
The president was poised to narrowly win several tight races in a handful of battleground states. It was the culmination of a staggeringly expensive, extremely close and sometimes bitter contest far removed from Obama’s 2008 message of hope and change.
Democrats also held onto their majority in the Senate, picking up two seats in early returns with the possibility of a third.
By 11 p.m., Obama had already won the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Iowa and Wisconsin, the home of Romney’s running mate Rep. Paul Ryan. And later in the evening, Obama repeated his victory from four years ago in Virginia.
Other prizes -- Florida and Ohio-- were still too close to call, but Obama appeared headed to victory because of still-to-be counted votes in Democratic strongholds there.
In Florida, Obama clung to a narrow lead, but Democrats were encouraged that the votes remaining to be counted come from South Florida counties where the president enjoys his strongest support.
Likewise in Ohio, thought to be the most closely contested state in the election, Obama had a slight lead with many votes still to be counted in the urban areas where he is strongest.
Virginia had not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson before Obama’s win in 2008. And Democrats there held onto the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Jim Webb (D.) Former governor and senator George Allen (R) conceded the race to another former governor, Tim Kaine, shortly before 11 p.m.
[The latest state-by-state results]
In early results, Obama won his home state of Illinois as well as Massachusetts, where Romney was governor and the place he still calls home. Maryland and the District of Columbia were put in Obama’s column as soon as polls there closed.
Romney was winning across the South, plus West Virginia, Indiana and Oklahoma — traditional Republican states in the presidential contest.
In the high-profile Senate race in Massachusetts, Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated
Republican Sen. Scott Brown. Democrats also picked up a Republican seat in Indiana, where Rep. Joe Donnelly prevailed over state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Mourdock had defeated six-term incumbent Sen. Richard G. Lugar in the May Republican primary, but his controversial comments about rape and abortion changed the tone of the general election campaign. In Missouri, Democrat Claire McCaskill held onto her Senate seat by defeating Republican challenger Todd Akin after he made controversial remarks about rape and abortion as well.
In addition, former Maine governor Angus King, an independent, won the Senate race there. He has not said which party he will align with, but Democrats spent money to oppose King’s Republican challenger.
After more than $2 billion in campaign spending, unprecedented hours of television ads and a record number of voters who cast their ballots before Tuesday, Election Day 2012 was told in timeless tableaus of lines outside schools, volunteers waving signs and Americans emerging with “I Voted” stickers attached to their jackets.
After more than $2 billion in campaign spending, unprecedented hours of television ads and a record number of voters who cast their ballots before Tuesday, Election Day 2012 was told in timeless tableaus of lines outside schools, volunteers waving signs and Americans emerging with “I Voted” stickers attached to their jackets.
The soft national economy wasn’t enough to lift Romney in the presidential contest, even as it was the clear No. 1 issue for voters. In the exit poll, just as many said they trusted Obama to handle the economy as said so about Romney. As expected the GOP legacy hurt Romney, as far more said they blamed George W. Bush, not Obama, for the economic problems in the country.
About three in 10 said the economy is in poor shape, an improved view from 2008. Romney won these voters by a very wide margin. But among the plurality of voters who said the economy is only “not so good” Obama won by 55 to 42. And Obama won by wide margins those who see the economy in good or better shape.
A continually changing electorate also worked in the president’s favor. Some 72 percent of all voters were white, in the preliminary data, the lowest share on record. Obama picked up just 40 percent of white voters, but soared again among African Americans and won Hispanics by a 40-point margin.
The electorate also turned out to be about as Democratic as the one that lifted Obama to victory four years ago. Women voted to reelect Obama by a double-digit margin, while men sided more narrowly with Romney.
Still, there were changes that may be more ominous indicators for the president in his second term. A slim majority of all voters said the federal government is doing too many things that should be left to businesses and individuals. That’s a switch from 2008, when more voters said government should be more active.
And when it comes to the president’s signature health-care reform, voters were split: 49 percent said it should be repealed at least in part, while 44 percent said it should be left intact or expanded
Both Obama and Romney reached out Tuesday to undecided voters and their bases of support, but the polls showed that about 70 percent of the voters decided whom to vote for before September,
Obama stayed close to home in Chicago on Election Day, visiting campaign workers, taking a turn at the phone bank — reassuring those at the other end that it was, indeed, the president calling — and conducting several interviews
After an acrimonious campaign far different from his 2008 message of hope and change, Obama saluted his Republican competitor. “I also want to say to Governor Romney, ‘Congratulations on a spirited campaign.’ I know his supporters are just as engaged, just as enthusiastic and working just as hard today,” the president said.
Then it was on to a traditional pickup game of hoops at the Attack Athletics facility, where he played with, among others, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former Duke University player and Obama aide Reggie Love, and old friends Michael Ramos and Martin Nesbitt.
Romney seemed to have some nervous energy to shed as well, before awaiting the results in Boston.
“I can’t imagine an election being won or lost by, let’s say, a few hundred votes and you spent your day sitting around,” Romney told Richmond radio station WRVA early Tuesday morning. “I mean, you’d say to yourself, ‘Holy cow, why didn’t I keep working?’ And so I’m going to make sure I never have to look back with anything other than the greatest degree of satisfaction on this whole campaign.”
Romney and Ryan visited Richmond Heights, Ohio, and had lunch at a Wendy’s — burger and chili — before heading to Pennsylvania. At Pittsburgh International Airport, Romney was met by hundreds of supporters packed into the top and middle levels of a nearby parking garage, cheering the candidate’s arrival.
A visibly moved Romney, clad in a white shirt and slacks, stepped into the late afternoon sun and walked across the tarmac to a spot near a metal fence separating him from the supporters in the garage.
Afterward, a reporter asked how the moment made him feel. “That’s when you know you’re gonna win,” Romney said.
Later, he, too, had kind words about his opponent. “The president has run a strong campaign; I believe he is a good man and wish him well, and his family well,” Romney said. “He is a good father and has been a good example of a good father, but it is time for a new direction. It is a time for a better tomorrow.”
Many voting sites reported near-record turnout, a sign that the country had listened when both candidates told them that this election represented a crucial choice between two starkly different visions at a critically important time.
“This is unusual. Usually you’re out in 20 minutes,” said Patty Hicks, who faced an hour-long wait at 10:30 a.m. at a school in the swing state of New Hampshire. “I think people realize how important this election is.”
Bonnie Argeropoulos, an exit poller stationed at the school, said she didn’t know what she would do if the lines continued. “I’m going to run out of surveys,” she said. “I’ve never seen it like this.”
In storm-ravaged New Jersey, voters displaced by superstorm Sandy were being permitted to apply for mail-in ballots by fax or e-mail, raising concerns about possible hacking and fraud. Officials said so many requests poured it that it was hard to keep up, and some voters would not receive their ballots until Friday.
Dozens of polling stations in New Jersey and New York had to be relocated because of storm damage.
In Massachusetts, the White House race and the tightly contested U.S. Senate contest between Warren and Brown was driving heavy turnout. Lines crawled down hallways of schools, outside firehouses and around community centers in the Boston suburbs of Cambridge, Somerville and Braintree.
“I just totally buy into her message of wanting to work for the little people and make sure working families get a fair shake,” said Emily Kathan, 41, a Warren supporter in Somerville.
At a polling place at a community center in the suburban town of Braintree, voters spoke of Brown’s charm and willingness to vote with Democrats as reasons for going red in a very blue state. “Brown’s a regular guy driving a truck — he relates to everybody,” said Ron Bonigli, 71. “I think Warren leans way too Democrat.”
In Washington’s Maryland suburbs, Latino voters turned out in force to support the state’s Dream Act, which would qualify illegal immigrants in the state to pay in-state college tuition.
“God gives us this freedom to contribute to change,” said Francisco Javier Mercado, 42, a Salvadoran immigrant who was voting for the first time. “As a citizen, I feel for the thousands of young people who came here looking for opportunity and have difficulties affording a college education.”
Darryl Fears in Manchester, N.H., Stephanie McCrummen in Boston, Felicia Sonmez in Pittsburgh, Susan Svrluga in Arlington and Craig Timberg in Cleveland contributed to this report.