Democratic caucus turnout reminiscent of Carter-Kennedy

AUGUSTA – Maine Democrats may have seen a record high number of participants at their caucuses Sunday, but the record they apparently broke was not as low or as recent as party officials originally said.

State Democratic Party officials said Sunday’s Democratic turnout exceeded the previous record of 17,000, set in 2004, by almost 28,000 votes. With more than 99 percent of precincts reporting Sunday, nearly 45,000 Mainers had participated, party officials said.

But contemporaneous accounts indicated that 1980, at least, produced a much higher Democratic caucus turnout than the 17,000 claimed for 2004.

After an intense contest between incumbent President Jimmy Carter and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts in which Carter fended off a strong challenge, then-Democratic Party Chairman Harold Pachios pegged the statewide Democratic vote in 1980 at 33,326.

That was the first year Democrats held all their caucuses on one day.

In 1980 on the Republican side, George H.W. Bush was something of a favorite son in Maine, but Ronald Reagan gained the Republican nomination and then narrowly won the state in November en route to the White House.

Reagan took 46 percent of the vote to beat Carter, who had 42 percent. Independent John Anderson won 10 percent.

Four years ago in state convention voting after the Democratic caucuses in Maine, 24 pledged national delegate positions were apportioned among the top three finishers. Eventual nominee John Kerry claimed 11 slots, Howard Dean seven and Dennis Kucinich six.

Kerry went on to win Maine in the general election, besting President George W. Bush by 54 percent to 45 percent. That put Maine in the Democratic column for the fourth presidential election in a row.