Clinton gave Va. too little too late, Spruill says

In the week before Tuesday's primary, Del. Lionell Spruill Sr., D-Chesapeake, patched together a self-described "Band-Aid" effort to help Hillary Rodham Clinton carry his Chesapeake precincts.

Spruill, who has held elected office for 20 years, has a long-standing record of helping Democrats for governor or the U.S. Senate carry the vote on his home turf in northern Chesapeake. He hoped for no less for the New York senator when he helped arrange a Chesapeake visit last Saturday by former President Bill Clinton.

That rally at Indian River High School "was just too late," Spruill said.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama swept through Spruill's district, racking up more than 80 percent of the Democratic vote in several precincts.

"We came in at the last minute," Spruill said Wednesday. "You can't take Virginia for granted, and it shows."

A closer look at voter returns reveals that turnout was much stronger in South Hampton Roads than in the state as a whole - particularly in the Democratic primary.

Statewide, about 31 percent of registered voters cast ballots compared with Portsmouth, where 39 percent went to the polls; Chesapeake's turnout was 35 percent; Norfolk and Suffolk were 36 percent each and Virginia Beach was 32 percent, according the State Board of Elections' unofficial results.

Obama made a clean sweep, carrying all five cities in the Democratic primary.

Spruill said Obama won here because he showed up in Hampton Roads several times, including at a Virginia Beach rally Sunday that drew an estimated crowd of 18,000.

"He was there to talk to the people, and we didn't do a good job of that," Spruill said. "No one had a chance to see my candidate and ask questions."

In the Republican primary, Arizona Sen. John McCain won a statewide victory, defeating former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee by

9 percentage points. But McCain didn't fare as well in South Hampton Roads.

The GOP front-runner carried Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth, but Huckabee won the popular vote in Suffolk and Chesapeake.

Republican Party chairmen had different interpretations of Huckabee's local success.

Stephen G. Trent, the chairman of the Suffolk Republican Party, who talked with election workers in five precincts, said longtime Republicans were getting Democratic ballots so they could vote against Clinton.

"People who never voted for a Democrat in their lives said they were going to vote in the Democratic primary," Trent said.

"But if the Democrats think they've got something going here in Suffolk, they're whistling past a graveyard."

Trent pointed out, for example, that in the largely Republican Driver precinct, Obama picked up 757 votes compared with 387 for Huckabee and 370 for McCain.

The precinct's voting pattern could show that Republicans who would have voted for McCain crossed over to help sink Clinton's chances in Virginia, Trent said.

"A lot of people want to make sure Hillary Clinton doesn't get in there," he said.

The large amount of McCain crossovers could have secured the victory for Huckabee in Suffolk, Trent said.

Chesapeake Republican Chairman Delmon Quesinberry has a simpler theory about Huckabee's success in his suburban city:

"Perhaps voters felt like they wanted to go ahead and give McCain a message, maybe that he needs to pay attention to conservatives."

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com