Obama, McCain ‘win’ mock primary at local high school

If Newport Harbor High School students had their way, Sen. Barack Obama would be in good shape — presidential shape, in fact.

Newport Harbor High School held a mock election in English classes Tuesday, and Obama handily received the majority of votes from students.

Obama took home 270 votes to Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 136 from students who voted for Democrats.

In a closer contest, Sen. John McCain was the favorite among Republican candidates, drawing 103 votes with Rudy Giuliani grabbing second place, Gov. Mitt Romney in third, Gov. Mike Huckabee in fourth and Ron Paul in fifth.

“I was definitely surprised because we kind of have a reputation for being more Republican,” said Rebecca Brown who coordinated the election. “Maybe there are people out there who aren’t that open to their political views.”

The event was held statewide and was sponsored at Newport Harbor by The Young Democrat’s Club on campus.

The statewide results mirrored that of Newport with Obama tallying more than 31,000 votes versus Clinton’s 19,850. Once again, Democrats were favored overall. Statewide, McCain was the popular Republican choice but his results paled in comparison to Obama or Clinton with only 4,164 votes.

Eight Orange County schools participated in the event, each one echoing the same result. Obama won at each school, but one.

“A lot of these kids are going to be first-time voters in the next election and maybe that will be a reflection of what people want,” said Rebecca, 17, who supported John Edwards but is now leaning toward Clinton. “It’s interesting because Hillary is projected to win for the state, but it’s different when you have high school kids voting.”

Students were allowed to vote for one party and one candidate from that party. All political parties and candidates were represented. Vote totals can be found at the www.sos.ca.gov/elections/studentmockelection_08_results.htm”>California Secretary of State website.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at daniel.tedford@latimes.com.