Obama captures Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Sen. Barack Obama cruised to an easy victory over rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in yesterday’s Wyoming Democratic caucuses, giving his presidential campaign a surge of momentum in the drawn-out nomination battle after defeats earlier in the week.

Mr. Obama defeated Mrs. Clinton by 5,378 votes to 3,312, or a margin of 61 percent to 38 percent with returns in from all of the state’s 23 precincts.

At stake were 12 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, a small but significant prize in what has become a tight, combative race, and both candidates made some last-minute efforts here.

The 7-5 split in Mr. Obama’s favor maintains his overall lead at more than 100 delegates in the Associated Press delegate count, which includes commitments from superdelegates, party activists and officeholders who can vote as they wish at the August convention in Denver.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe called the Wyoming victory “evidence that Senator Obama is going to be able to put more states in play [in November] because of his strength with independent voters.”

“Especially in the intermountain West, people are hungry for something different, people are hungry for someone who’s a uniter,” added Gabe Cohen, the Obama state director in Wyoming.

Mrs. Clinton’s state spokesman Ben Kobren called Wyoming “an uphill climb” for his candidate and said the former first lady’s team was “glad we were able to bring out our grassroots support and come very close in delegates.”

The candidates face off next on Tuesday in Mississippi, which has 33 delegates at stake, before moving to delegate-rich Pennsylvania in preparation for that state’s April 22 primary.

Both candidates campaigned in Wyoming on Friday, contributing to the record turnout at yesterday’s caucuses. In Laramie County, party leaders had to hold two back-to-back caucuses because the Cheyenne Civic Center auditorium wasn’t big enough to hold the 1,532 registered Democrats who turned out for the vote.

By comparison, only 675 Democrats statewide attended the 2004 party convention.

“The numbers across the state were huge, which was fantastic,” said Mike Bell, chairman of the Laramie County Democratic Party.

The Obama victory came as a surprise because no one had done statewide polling in Wyoming, a heavily Republican state that nobody had expected to matter, especially with a caucus falling a month after the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests that were supposed to decide the race.

Mr. Obama’s appearances in Laramie and Casper on Friday helped rally the faithful, said Harriett “Liz” Byrd, an Obama supporter from Cheyenne.

“I went to his speech at the University of Wyoming at Laramie, and that place was full. His speech was tremendous,” said Mrs. Byrd, a former state legislator.

“There’s just something about him that says, ’Here I am, I’m here to help people,’ ” she said.

Mr. Obama may have also benefited from the support of state party Chairman John Millin, who had warned in an article that having Mrs. Clinton as the presidential nominee would hurt Democratic candidates statewide.

His wife, Democratic state Rep. Lori Millin, agreed, citing Mrs. Clinton’s “very divisive personality.”

“I live in a 60 percent Republican district,” said Mrs. Millin. “When I go door to door, I would feel better having Obama at the top of the ticket.”

Mrs. Clinton’s supporters countered by citing her more extensive political experience.

“We need a doer, not a dreamer,” said Milward Simpson, a descendant of two Wyoming senators, after voting in Cheyenne.

“She’s got twice as much experience. I don’t think this is Obama’s time. I think Obama’s time is ahead of him.”

Although Mrs. Clinton trails her rival by about 100 delegates overall, her campaign received a boost last week by winning three of four state contests, in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island.

She made speeches in Cheyenne and Casper on Friday, the day after her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea crisscrossed the state in a series of campaign appearances.

Mr. Clinton was in Mississippi yesterday, campaigning on the state’s Gulf Coast and highlighting his wife’s support for reforming national flood insurance and for rebuilding wetlands in a town nearly wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina.

He also criticized the Bush administration’s response to the storm, saying it believed “cronyism is more important than competence” and called himself surprised that thousands of Mississippi residents are still living in trailers more than two years after the hurricane.

“By now, they should have been building more permanent housing for you,” he said. “I will work on it, and I’ll see what we can do.”

Still, Mr. Obama leads in polls in the state with a large black population by margins ranging from six percentage points to 24 points, according to a roundup of surveys at RealClearPolitics.com.

Coupled with his Wyoming win, a big victory in Mississippi could help Mr. Obama recover some of the momentum that was halted by his defeats Tuesday in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island.

Analysts agree that next month’s Pennsylvania contest will be critical, particularly for Mrs. Clinton, who needs to continue her string of big-state victories to catch up with Mr. Obama in the delegate count.