‘Super Tuesday’ Quiet in Medford

– Allison Goldsberry

In stark contrast to four years ago, only 12.5% of registered voters participated in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

In the 2008 presidential primary, about half of Medford’s registered voters came out to the polls. Democratic Medford voters favored Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama by an almost 2-to-1 margin at the time while Republican voters favored former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney over John McCain.

This time 79.5% of people who voted Democratic favored incumbent President Barack Obama while 70.2% of Republican voters chose Romney.

In 2008, Obama and Clinton had a hard-fought battle for the Democratic nomination. This time, the real contest was among the Republican hopefuls. In Medford, no other GOP candidate came close to Romney, who also easily won the entire state of Massachusetts. Rick Santorum received 12.6% of Republican votes cast in Medford while Ron Paul received 10.9% and Newt Gingrich 4.46%.

James Campano was elected State Committee Man and Maureen Bastardi was elected State Committee Woman for the Democratic Party while Robert Cappucci and Patricia Brady Doherty were elected State Committee Man and State Committee Woman for the Republican Party.

The general presidential election will be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. The last day to register to vote prior to the election is Wednesday, October 17, 2012.