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Posted: March 3, 2008 6:30 PM
Vermont and Rhode Island: Don't Forget About Us!
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While the media have focused on the Democratic showdowns in Ohio and Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont also hold primaries Tuesday and voters there seem equally as energized.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has all but locked up the Republican nomination, but on the Democratic side Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting over each delegate — making even states with smaller population such as Vermont and Rhode Island politically valuable. Compared to Ohio and Texas, Rhode Island awards a small number of delegates — 21 on the Democratic side and 20 for the Republicans. Vermont has even fewer with 15 delegates for both parties.

Rhode Island Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis predicted voter turnout would be around 30 percent, a large jump from the 6 percent turnout in 2004. The state elections board estimated three to four times as many mail-in ballots as previous primary elections.

“When you put all of this together it became very obvious to us that people want to let their voice be heard on March 4,” Mollis said, according to the Providence Journal.

A majority of Rhode Island voters are independent — 350,752 compared to 236,621 Democrats and 75,923 Republicans — and can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries. Voters registered for a party must vote in that party’s primary.

Vermont has no party registration. It is one of the least populated states with 623,000 residents, 96 percent of whom are white. Per capita, Vermont has the largest number of troops killed in Iraq, and the war is unpopular in the state, one factor that contributes to Obama’s strong support there as the candidate who opposed the Iraq war in 2002.

“Vermont is wonderfully quirky, and we like to put our thumb in the eye of the establishment,” said University of Vermont political science professor Garrison Nelson in Time magazine. “But I wouldn’t read too much into Tuesday. It’s a liberal state.”

All the candidates made brief stops in Rhode Island in February, but their surrogates have done most of the stumping for them. Clinton has enlisted her daughter Chelsea, husband Bill Clinton and Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in her Rhode Island campaign, while Obama’s wife, Michelle, has appeared on his behalf. February polling showed Clinton leading Obama in the state. The most recent poll from Brown University putting her ahead 42 percent to Obama’s 37 percent.

In Vermont, Obama had a solid 24-point lead in a Rasmussen Reports poll published on Feb. 25.