Pocono News Section

Primary 2008 Winners & Losers

Primary 2008 Winners & Losers - Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 5:04PM EST

Reported by: Eric Deabill
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008 @ 05:04pm EST
WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY - After weeks of campaigning, the votes have been cast and counted. For some candidates, Tuesday night was long. For others, it was very short.

It didn't take long to clean-out Senator Barack Obama's headquarters in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Even though the democratic frontrunner lost to Senator Hillary Clinton by ten points, volunteers remain optimistic.

"What we did here in Wilkes-Barre was historic. We had a dramatic voter registration earlier this campaign. Seven thousand new democrats were registered to vote," Bob Caruso, a Senator Obama volunteer said.

Every county except Union County went for Senator Clinton. Professor David Sosar of King's College isn't surprised. He also says everything will now change.

"I think people are going to be shocked not to see too many commercials or not get phone calls tonight," Sosar said.

In the 10th congressional district, businessman Chris Hackett beat Dan Meuser for the republican nomination. The margin of victory was three-thousand votes.

"This is one of the most important races for the republicans in our country. It's the number one or number two pick-up that we have. I believe we are going to be very successful in raising money," Hackett said.

One of the biggest surprises in Primary 2008 came from central Pennsylvania, in the 23rd district state senate seat. Attorney Eugene Yaw, who's never held public office, beat incumbent Steve Cappelli, a former mayor.

"He is probably one of the aftershocks of the payraise that was run very effectively against him. He was part of the voting block that wanted a 40-percent increase in his pay raise," professor Sosar said.

According to all the results, Yaw won by more than 7,000 votes, or 22-percent of the vote.