Region opts for Obama

By Mary Carey
Staff Writer

Published on November 07, 2008

Yes, they could - help deliver the groundbreaking victory to Barack Obama with high turnouts and lopsided margins for the Democratic presidential candidate in Amherst and surrounding towns.

"Historic," "euphoric" and "momentous" were some of the words voters used to describe the feeling they sensed all around them.

"Never in my life have I been so excited," said Mohammad Idrees, a 67-year-old native of Pakistan. He told his son, Ameer, who is 7, "When you grow up you will remember this night. You will say I saw the USA change."

Electing "a nonwhite person president," said Idrees, an adjunct professor at Holyoke College and local farmer, "shows the world that really color doesn't matter much."

Obama won in every Hampshire County community - and by significant margins in many. Pelham voters went the biggest for Obama, giving him 85 percent of votes cast, followed closely by Leverett, Shutesbury and Northampton.

Leverett, with 86.8 percent turnout was among the highest in the Valley.

Pelham voters also weighed in most emphatically in favor of decriminalizing marijuana as described in statewide ballot Question 2.

In Amherst, 12,849 voters cast ballots, representing a 68 percent turnout.

<h4>Olver wins</h4>

Democratic Congressman John Olver, of Amherst, was returned to office by a wide margin as was Stanley Rosenberg, the Democratic state senator from Amherst, U.S. Sen. John Kerry and District 8 Governor's Councilor Thomas Merrigan, of Greenfield.

Area voters firmly rejected eliminating the income tax as described in Question 1 and approved banning dog racing in Question 3.

By a 5,294-5,122 margin, Amherst voters rejected increasing the Community Preservation Act property tax surcharge proposed in Question 4, but resoundingly approved nonbinding Questions 5 and 6 promoting single-payer health care and a green economy, respectively.

About 150 of Olver's supporters celebrated at Hickory Ridge Country Club, where a great cheer went up at about 9:30 p.m. at the news that Barack Obama had prevailed in Ohio.

"It's over," the newly re-elected congressman said, before he continued outlining what Congress could do with a Democratic majority and Obama. There would be health care reform, more effective financial regulation and a chance to meaningfully address climate change.

All day long, local Obama supporters had expressed cautious optimism their candidate would win.

Amherst resident Carol Johnson described the mood among the people she knows as "euphoric." Some of them were planning to take Wednesday off to celebrate.

Voters who favored McCain seemed less excited than Obama supporters, well before the results were known.

<h4>‘Just another election'</h4>

"It's just another election," said Rich Hall, of Pelham, a businessman and town firefighter, who was a poll worker in Amherst. "If either wins, that's fine, you know, even though I'm a registered Republican. Bush can't do anything because he's basically a lame duck president. You just have to hope until the new one comes in hopefully he can stimulate the economy and get things back on track"

"Oh, God, yeah, of course that's true that Obama supporters are more excited," said businessman Larry Kelley, who had predicted on his blog that McCain would win. "Obama has personalty, style, charisma. I don't think anyone would describe McCain has having charisma."

But Kelley trusts McCain. "That's what I think about these days - my wife and two kids - and he's got the experience."

Comparisons with the election of John F. Kennedy abounded.

Select Board candidate Calvin Brower recalled meeting Kennedy when Brower was a 10-year-old paper boy in Worcester. Obama stands for the same things Kennedy did, which is why Brower was so excited about his candidacy, he said.

At World Apart Games on North Pleasant Street, a "gaming" collective, Alison Leuchtenburg, a UMass student who was watching the returns said, "It's like when Kennedy ran and he got all the young people excited. He's got the vision. Or like with FDR when people really were concerned about the country."

Question 2 activist Terry Franklin, who was at World Apart, said he voted for Libertarian Bob Barr for president. He was mainly interested in the ballot questions.

"The presidential stuff - that's not really contested in Massachusetts," Franklin said. "I haven't paid much attention to that."

<h4>Rockin' the vote</h4>

University of Massachusetts students arrived by the busload all day at the Bangs Community Center, which houses Precincts 4, 5 and 10.

For many of the students it was the first time they have voted, among them Eli Nunes, 18, who cast an absentee vote in his hometown of Swampscott last week. He has been a volunteer with MASSPIRG, which set up a table outside the community center to help any students having problems with their registration.

Most people were able to vote, Nunes said, although there was some confusion about where some people had registered, which led to some students having to cast provisional ballots.

Yasmin Abbyad, a UMass junior from New Orleans, was also working for MASSPIRG, her third year working with the public interest research group.

"The fact that we got to work on this election is really, really exciting," Abbyad said.

"There are all these gender, race and minority issues that campuses are really involved with. It applies to the issues we actually care about."

Nunes thinks the excitement "grew out of the anger" over President Bush, stoked by cartoons, television shows and Internet sites. "It all kind of morphed into excitement about this election - with Obama who's pledging with all his heart not to be like Bush," Nunes said.

Nancy Farber, director of the Cushman Scott Children's Center, was selling baked goods outside the polls to benefit the North Amherst children's center. They had made about $500, she estimated.

"I was amazed at how many voters there are. I saw people taking pictures; they were so excited to be voting for the first time," she said. "People seem to be so thrilled to be making part of history."

Some people thought they got a free cookie for voting, which wasn't the case - but there was free coffee at Starbucks and ice cream for all at Ben & Jerry's.

Mary Carey can be reached at mary.carey@att.net.