Philly Comes Out for the Prez

“They say President Obama wasn’t born here, call him a Muslim, insult his family….” so read a pre-election mailer delivered to African American neighborhoods in Philadelphia by the NAACP National Voter Fund. Those appeals, appearances by Barack and Michelle and frenzied (and baseless) accusations of voter suppression against Tom Corbett were all aimed at juicing Philadelphia turnout Tuesday. “Time to get President Obama’s Back,” one mailer read.

Did it work?

I think so, based on unofficial returns. I estimate Philadelphia turnout at 40% of registered voters, which probably means more like 43-44% of actual living registered voters. Philly got Joe Sestak nearly as many votes as it got Bob Casey four years ago when he trounced conservative Republican Rick Santorum for a Senate seat.

Seems to me Sestak got what he needed in Philly. What he lost was the battle for indpendents and conservative Democrats in the suburbs. Casey won all four suburban counties in 2006. Sestak won only two, and came away with 94,000 fewer votes than Casey. Toomey won the election by 77,000.

 

Here’s my radio piece on the subject…