I’m sure many of you were up half the night wondering about the results from the first-in-the-nation primary fight in the District of Columbia. To set your mind at ease, here’s how it turned out, with 96% of precincts reporting:
Dean — 43% (17,584 votes)
Sharpton — 34% (14,090 votes)
Braun — 12% (4,776 votes)
Kucinich — 8% (3,408 votes)
Dean’s relatively narrow win means…absolutely nothing. The DC primary, as I explained yesterday, produces no delegates.
Even DC residents didn’t seem particularly excited about having the nation’s first primary. I’ve seen varied estimates on voter turnout, but it appeared to be between 10% and 15%.
The more I think about it, the more I find the DC primary ironic. District leaders wanted to hold the first primary to generate attention for their lack of voting rights and to seek commitments from presidential candidates on the city’s plight. Instead they got a meaningless primary that voters, candidates, and reporters ignored. Even the winning candidate didn’t campaign in DC.
The ironic part is that if DC had arranged to hold a real primary in say, early February, chances are candidates would have come to DC to campaign, spoken out on issues of concern to city residents, and maybe even generated media attention.
But, no. DC had to be stubborn. What a shame.