( – promoted by Clark)

That’s the turnout for the 2008 primaries. With a competitive primary on the Democratic side and a close one on the Republican side, voters went to their polling places, and requested a Democratic ballot.

The turnout:

Democratic – 823750 (58.2%)

Republican – 589167 (41.6%)

Libertarian – 2056 (0.2%)

And here’s a map showing the turnout. (Good guys in blue, of course):

Yes, this map means something, and that meaning is under the fold.

Basically the Republicans held their traditional base and a few assorted counties. The traditional Republican base is Southwest Missouri, and the Ozark region from Springfield to Jefferson City. Also Republicans held Gasconade (Republican since 1860), Putnam (Republican since 1864), Warren (Republican every time except 1992), Carroll, and the Cape Girardeau area.

Callaway County: 53D/47R

Cass County: 52D/48R

Cole County: 53R/47D

Greene County: 52R/47D

Franklin County: 53D/47R

Lincoln County: 55D/45R

Phelps County: 52R/47D

St. Charles County: 53D/47R

But enough with the close stuff.. the blowouts included..

Boone: 62D/38R

Buchanan: 63D/37R

Jackson: 69D/31R

STL City: 87D/13R

STL County: 66D/34R

But, obviously a 58/42 victory is not the expected outcome for 2008, so how about showing which counties had an above average percentage turnout?

a list of Strongholds:

*Bates and Henry Counties (Two of the friendlier West Central Missouri Counties. McCaskill carried Henry County)

*Boone and Howard Counties (Boone is an obvious stronghold. Howard has huge turnouts for Dems in August primaries)

*The Boothill (Claire McCaskill won 3 of the 4 highlighted counties)

*Buchanan County (Here be St. Joseph)

*Charition and Saline Counties (Both are “traditionally Democratic” but Saline is more likely to vote Blue in general elections)

*Clay and Ray Counties (Both counties have a long history of supporting Democratic candidates)

*Jackson County (Only two wins for GOP candidates in the last 80 years)

*Knox, Lewis, Schuyler Counties (nope, can’t quite explain this)

*Linn County (Hey, they went for McCaskill too, it’s a new habit in Linn County)

*Pike and Ralls Counties (Pike went for McCaskill. Ralls might be coming back to our column)

*St. Louis (Apparently STL county is getting bigger for us every day)

*The Swarth (From Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve in the Northeast, down to Reynolds and Iron County.. a true heartland for Democratic turnout. Plus, McCaskill won a line of counties from JeffCo/SteGen to Shannon/Oregon Counties)

——–

So, what does this turnout really mean?

For one thing, it’s a sign that despite close primaries on both sides, Missouri voters are more excited for the Democratic candidates than the Republican candidates.

I wouldn’t expect a huge spike in such excitement for Republicans, as Huckabee was the preferred candidate for most of the voters in the red SW Missouri counties.

As compared to 2004 (where 77% of Presidential primary day voters were Democrats), 58/42 is a very good split.

Plus, it’s a good gauge of possibilities for the general election. This isn’t like the August primaries, where you get things like Mississippi County casting 2100 votes in the Democratic Primary and 30 votes in the Republican primary.

Our strongholds from 2006 and previous elections still like us. And some other parts of the state are warming up to us as well.

So if you voted for Obama, Clinton, or Spelbring, it’s worth keeping in mind that we have more people in our treehouse and we won the turnout game yesterday in a landslide.

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