By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

    Braving snowstorms and long lines, Maine Democrats
flocked to their local caucuses Feb. 10 and overwhelmingly favored
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama to be the party’s 2008 presidential nominee.


    “I’ve never seen it so high energy,” Cape Elizabeth
Democratic Chairman Jamie Wagner said on Monday. “I heard some
old-timers talk about the last time they had this feeling about the
caucus was in ’72. We had a lot of youth and a lot of elderly people
and a lot in between.”

    Wagner said Obama won 28 of the 39 delegates Cape
Elizabeth will send to the state convention, with Clinton winning the
remaining 11. A total of 773 votes were cast, according to the Maine
Democratic Party results.

    “I’m sure that the party faithful of the Republicans
will support Sen. John McCain, but the energy that the Republicans are
reflecting for their candidates is paled by what the Democrats are
showing,” Wagner said. “I think the energy you see in the Democratic
race is probably going to be reflected by a higher turnout of Democrats
and Independents in November.”

    South Portland residents cast a total of 1,052 votes
last weekend. According to the South Portland Democratic Committee
results, Obama won 53 of the 81 total delegates to the state
convention. Clinton won 27 and Dennis Kucinich, who is no longer in the
race, earned one delegate.

   Both municipalities cast a total of 108 votes each in the Feb. 2 Republican caucuses.

    With 509 of the participating precincts reporting or
99 percent, Obama won 2,079 delegates out of a statewide total of 3,498
delegates, according to Tuesday’s Maine Democratic Party results.
Clinton won 1,397 delegates, while 18 were uncommitted and 4 chose
another candidate.

    Maine’s results awarded Obama 15 delegates to the
national convention compared to Clinton’s nine, according to the Maine
Democratic Party.

    The Maine Democratic State Convention is scheduled
for May 30 to June 1 at the Augusta Civic Center. The Democratic
National Convention is planned for Aug. 25 to 28 in Denver, Colo.

    According to the Maine Democratic Party, each
municipal democratic committee is allocated a number of delegates
“based on the proportion of votes cast for the Democratic candidate for
president or governor in the last general election.”

    Residents also lined up last weekend to enroll in a
party for the first time and to switch their party affiliations. Cape
Elizabeth Town Clerk Ruth Noble said she processed roughly 125 voter
registration cards that included both new enrollments and party
enrollment changes. During the Feb. 2 Republican caucus, Noble
processed two new enrollments and roughly four party changes.

    South Portland City Clerk Susan Mooney said 95
people became Democrats after previously being unenrolled. There were
35 new registrations of people not previously registered in Maine and
47 registrations of people new to South Portland, but from another
Maine community. There was one new registration and one status change
from unenrolled to Republican during that party’s caucus, Mooney said.

    The breakdown of party enrollment citywide is
currently 41 percent Democrats, 33 percent unenrolled, 23 percent
Republican and 3 percent Green, Mooney reported.   

    South Portland Democratic Committee Chairman
Deborrah Jabar said last weekend’s large turnout left some people
thinking it is time to restructure the caucus process or switch to a
primary.

    Participants from the city’s five precincts gathered
to vote in the high school’s Beal Gymnasium as well as the library.
Initially, the caucus was scheduled to take place at the middle school,
but was moved because of the anticipated turnout, Jabar said.

    “You might talk to some people who say, ‘Oh, it was
chaos,” she said on Tuesday. “The upside was it was exciting to see so
many people participating. In the future – I would definitely look into
maybe we should think about changing to a primary and maybe one of the
options would be the way we conduct a caucus. I think there’s
definitely a strong interest in doing that and revisiting this in the
next four years.”