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Morris County voters speak out at the polls
(by Cindy Forrest - November 12, 2008)
Morris County voters came out in record numbers last week to make their voices heard in a historic election.
In 2006 147,325 votes were cast in the House of Representatives race between incumbent Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen R-Harding and newcomer Democrat Tom Wyka of Parsippany. This year a total of 202,508 ballots decided the same race. Running for his eighth term Frelinghuysen captured 62.2 percent of the vote in 2008 and 62.5 percent in 2006.
Wyka went from 36.4 percent of the vote in 2006 to 36.9 percent in 2008. However while the ages were almost identical for the 26th congressional district race the numbers were narrower in the presidential challenge.
The political demographics in Morris County seem to be slowly changing in the Republican stronghold that sits in the middle of an overwhelmingly blue state. Whether its an increase of young voters, an influx of largely Democratic New Yorkers moving across the Hudson River or the political engineering of programs such as the Council on Affordable Housing there is a shift taking place.
In the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, George W. Bush carried Morris County by a 15.8 percent margin over John Kerry, with Kerry carrying the state by 6.7 percent over Bush. This year John McCain beat Barack Obama in Morris County by only 9.5 percent. In some towns the results were even more dramatic.
“Obama carried Parsippany with 51.2 percent of the vote to McCain’s 47.6 percent,” said Michael Soriano chairman of the Parsippany Democratic Committee. “That’s significant.”
How Morris County voted
About 70 percent of the 321,254 registered voters in Morris County went to the polling places. Here are the unofficial county results for the major party candidates in the 2008 election:
President
R-John McCain 122,706 (54.15 percent)
D-Barack Obama 101,245 (44.68 percent)
U.S. Senate
R-Dick Zimmer 114,924 (56.54 percent)
D-Frank Lautenberg 85,164 (41.90 percent)
House of Representatives
R-Rodney Frelinghuysen 125,911 (62.18 percent)
D-Tom Wyka 74,843 (36.96 percent)
County Clerk
R-Joan Bramhall 116,494 (59.98 percent)
D-Diane K. Weeks 77,676 (39.99)
Board of Chosen Freeholders
R-Margaret Nordstrom 115,772 (60.13 percent)
D-Ellen Greenberg 76,676 (39.83 percent)
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