Chico’s a Democratic town

Final tallies are in. Not only did 39,044 people—a record 82 percent of Chico’s eligible voters—cast ballots in the November election, they also voted Democratic and liberal down the line.

For the presidency, Barack Obama got 61 percent of the vote to John McCain’s 36 percent, winning by 9,745 votes. District 2 Congressional candidate Jeff Morris beat Republican incumbent Wally Herger by 5,811 votes in Chico (and by 87 votes in the county, though Herger easily took the district). Even darkhorse District 3 Assembly candidate Mickey Harrington won in Chico, by 4,214 votes, though he lost to Republican Dan Logue in the county and district-wide.

Proposition 8, the anti-gay-marriage bill, lost handily in Chico, with 57.7 percent opposition. It passed countywide, however, with 56 percent of the vote.

Bob Mulholland, the campaign adviser to the state Democratic Party who lives in Chico and is active in local elections, credits the party’s local grassroots organizers for the Democratic successes. They registered more than 4,000 Democrats and contacted more than 17,500 voters, he said in a press release, declaring that “Butte County Republicans were missing in action this election.”