2008 United States presidential election in Connecticut

Primaries

• 2008 Connecticut Democratic presidential primary
• 2008 Connecticut Republican presidential primary

Campaign

Predictions

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

Polling

Main article: Statewide opinion polling for the 2008 United States presidential election#Connecticut

Barack Obama won every single poll taken in the state, and every one of them by a double-digit margin of victory.

Fundraising

John McCain raised a total of $3,966,985. Barack Obama raised $9,727,617.

Advertising and visits

Obama spent $730,335 while McCain spent nothing on the state. Neither campaign visited the state.

Analysis

Connecticut is a part of New England, an area of the country that has in recent decades become a Democratic stronghold. The state went Republican in most of the elections from 1948 to 1988, the exceptions being the three in the 1960s. However, following Bill Clinton's narrow victory in the state in 1992, it has not been seriously contested by Republicans since. McCain ceded the state to Obama early on, despite the endorsement of the state's incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-Independent who still caucused with the Democrats but backed McCain for president in 2008.

In 2006, Democrats knocked off two incumbent Republicans and picked up two U.S. House seats in CT-02 and CT-05 (Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy, respectively). Although then-Governor M. Jodi Rell and Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele were both moderate Republicans, all other statewide offices were held by Democrats. Democrats also enjoyed a supermajority status in both chambers of the Connecticut state legislature.

In 2008, Democrat Jim Himes defeated incumbent Republican Christopher Shays, who was at the time the only Republican member of the U.S. House from New England, for the U.S. House seat in Connecticut's 4th congressional district. This was largely because Obama carried the district with a staggering 60% of the vote—one of his best performances in a Republican-held district. Shays' defeat meant that for the first time in almost 150 years, there were no Republican Representatives from New England. In no other part of the country is a major political party completely shut out. At the state level, Democrats picked up 6 seats in the Connecticut House of Representatives and 1 seat in the Connecticut Senate.

Results

By county

Democratic ]]

;Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Litchfield (largest borough: Litchfield)

By congressional district

Barack Obama carried all five of Connecticut's congressional districts.

Electors

Main article: List of 2008 United States presidential electors

Technically the voters of Connecticut cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Connecticut is allocated 7 electors because it has 5 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 7 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and their running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all sevenelectoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 7 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:

1. Shirley Steinmetz
2. Nicholas Paindiris
3. Andrea Jackson Brooks
4. Jim Ezzes
5. Lorraine McQueen
6. Deborah McFadden
7. Ken Delacruz

References

References

1. "Register and manual - State of Connecticut. - Page 842".
2. (2009-01-01). "D.C.'s Political Report: The complete source for campaign summaries.".
3. (2015-05-05). "Presidential".
4. (2009-04-22). "Vote 2008 - The Takeaway - Track the Electoral College vote predictions".
5. "Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily".
6. Based on Takeaway
7. "POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com".
8. "RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map".
9. "CQ Presidential Election Maps, 2008".
10. (2008-11-04). "The Electoral Map: Key States". The New York Times.
11. (2008-10-31). "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs". CNN.
12. (April 27, 2010). "Winning The Electoral College". Fox News.
13. "roadto270".
14. "Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports".
15. "Presidential Campaign Finance".
16. "Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN.
17. "Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com". CNN.
18. "Statement of Vote".
19. "Electoral College". [[California Secretary of State]].
20. [https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/2008-certificates/index.html#ct U. S. Electoral College 2008 Election - Certificates]