"The same rural, low-income white voters who fiercely resisted Obama in 2008 are just as adamant now," Steve Kornacki writes for Salon, looking at some recent primary-election results: Federal prison inmate Keith Judd won 41 percent of the statewide vote against President Obama in West Virginia’s primary last week, and "an antiabortion fanatic" outpolled him in 15 Oklahoma counties in March, "and nearly walked away with a convention delegate."
The next primaries are May 22 in Kentucky and Arkansas. In Kentucky, Obama's only opposition is "Uncommitted," but in Arkansas, he faces Chattanooga lawyer John Wolfe Jr., who "fits the basic profile of a fringe presidential candidate – zero name recognition, no obvious base of support, a total lack of money, organization and media attention, multiple quixotic bids for local and federal office – but in the wake of the West Virginia verdict, I’m guessing he’s feeling good about his chances," Kornacki writes.
Wolfe, left, has lost three elections and one primary for the U.S. House elections, a Chattanooga mayoral race and a 2007 Democratic primary for the a seat in the Tennessee Senate. "The results have never been close, either, and the ’07 race ended with state election officials levying a $10,000 fine against him for failing to file a campaign finance report," Kornacki reports. "Five years later, he still hasn’t paid it, and so he’s currently banned from seeking municipal or state office in Tennessee."
But after getting all of 245 votes in the New Hampshire presidential primary, Wolfe "fared better in Missouri, then seemed to strike gold in Louisiana’s March primary, clearing 15 percent in three congressional districts – enough to qualify for delegates. But party leaders quickly found a way to rule him ineligible, pointing to his failure to submit a diversity plan for his convention delegation." (Read more)
The next primaries are May 22 in Kentucky and Arkansas. In Kentucky, Obama's only opposition is "Uncommitted," but in Arkansas, he faces Chattanooga lawyer John Wolfe Jr., who "fits the basic profile of a fringe presidential candidate – zero name recognition, no obvious base of support, a total lack of money, organization and media attention, multiple quixotic bids for local and federal office – but in the wake of the West Virginia verdict, I’m guessing he’s feeling good about his chances," Kornacki writes.
But after getting all of 245 votes in the New Hampshire presidential primary, Wolfe "fared better in Missouri, then seemed to strike gold in Louisiana’s March primary, clearing 15 percent in three congressional districts – enough to qualify for delegates. But party leaders quickly found a way to rule him ineligible, pointing to his failure to submit a diversity plan for his convention delegation." (Read more)
The West Virginia result was "disgusting," The Charleston Gazette said in an editorial. "most didn't know they were choosing a criminal. They simply picked "anyone but Obama." The inmate outpolled the president in nine counties. Further, about 25,000 other West Virginia Democratic voters skipped the presidential race entirely.
Although Obama easily won, it's nonetheless a blemish on the state that Keith Judd -- confined to a federal cell -- took 41 percent of West Virginia Democratic votes, almost the same number garnered by Republican Mitt Romney."
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