City votes mirror state

As goes Huntington Beach, so goes the state, at least in this year’s presidential primary elections. Candidates who won primary victories this week met with the same success here as they did statewide, according to unofficial returns.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain squeaked out a 38.6% victory in Huntington Beach among Republican primary voters, beating opponent Mitt Romney’s 35.8% share of the electorate. Mike Huckabee came in third, snagging a 9.8% slice, with Ron Paul in fourth with 4.9%.

That’s almost identical to the numbers countywide, with a 39.7% to 37.2% split between McCain and Romney. Huckabee did pull a slightly better 10.9% in the county as a whole.

While McCain won, some Romney voters said they were trying hard to send a message against the Republican field’s front-runner. Those tended to have concerns about his conservative credentials.

“I’m making a statement to John McCain, even if it looks like he’s winning,” resident Teri Bauer said coming out of the LeBard Park polls. “I want him to know we have conservative values in Orange County.”

For Democratic primary voters in Huntington Beach, Hillary Clinton took 50.9% of the vote. She decisively beat Barack Obama, who came in at 38.4%.

But that wasn’t thanks to resident Georgia Liberis, who said she couldn’t get behind Clinton’s candidacy shortly after she cast an Obama vote.

“I don’t like her,” she said. “I think she’s a fake, and I don’t trust her. We need to give someone new, someone young a chance at this.”

Despite an open primary for the Democratic side and statewide talk of greater turnout for Democrats, Republicans decisively beat Democrats in local turnout. Altogether, 26,377 ballots were cast for Republican candidates, while 20,973 came in for Democrats.

Proposition 92, which would have guaranteed spending to community colleges, went down in defeat both locally and statewide. Unscientific interviews of voters gleaned that many feared higher taxes.

The benefit doesn’t balance the risk of having to pay more taxes, resident Nina Swenson said coming out of the polls.

“The last thing we need is more taxes,” she said.