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News & Photos
McCain, Obama win McDonogh's "Super Thursday" Mock Primary
By Emily B. '08 Over the past couple weeks, Mr. Sanborn’s fifth and eighth period AP Government classes organized a mock primary election for McDonogh Upper School students and faculty. The idea for McDonogh’s very own mock primary was conceived by history teachers Mr. Sanborn and Mr. Harley. According to Mr. Sanborn, McDonogh has held numerous mock elections over the years, but this is the first time that a mock primary has been staged.
The mock primary was originally supposed to be held on Tuesday, but due to the snow days it took place on “Super Thursday.” Two hundred fifty-eight students and teachers voted. Of that number, 198 were registered Democrats and 69 were Republicans. Barack Obama was the favored candidate of the Democratic Party over opponent Hillary Clinton, gaining 83% of the vote. The three most important issues to his supporters included the war in Iraq, the economy, and global warming.
On the other side of the political spectrum, John McCain was the favorite with 68% of the votes. His supporters cared most about the economy, the war in Iraq, and immigration. Coming in second, Ron Paul garnered 22% of the votes, while only 10% of Republicans voted for Huckabee.
As Mr. Sanborn pointed out, “this is the first ‘national primary,’ with over forty percent of the delegates to be decided on Super Tuesday.” He predicted that John McCain will be the Republican candidate, “as his primary opponents have too many negatives associated with political backgrounds.” He calls the Democratic contest a “toss-up,” but points out that mention of Senator Clinton “can conjure up some fairly nasty remarks and ill feelings, particularly in my Government class.”
However, those are just his personal views. The mock primary was necessary in order to see how the broader McDonogh community felt. To get it started, the Government classes set up a method of registration. After all, one of the main reasons that citizens don’t vote today is due to the fact that they simply don’t register. At McDonogh, registration consisted of filling out a half-page form with the voter’s name, grade, and signature, then placing it in the registration box outside of Room 5.
Prior to counting the results, Mr. Sanborn predicted that in terms of people registering, “we could end up closer to the national average, which is often around fifty percent in the presidential elections.” However, three days and a three-inch stack of registrations later, upper schoolers and faculty overshot his prediction. Seventy percent of the students registered to vote in the mock primary.
By grade, it ended up that 54.5% of freshmen registered, 78.3% of sophomores, 86.0% of juniors, and 60.3% of seniors. Also, thirty faculty members chose to participate. According to the registrations, around 64% of the Upper School registered as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, and 7% as Independents.
By Emily B. '08 Over the past couple weeks, Mr. Sanborn’s fifth and eighth period AP Government classes organized a mock primary election for McDonogh Upper School students and faculty. The idea for McDonogh’s very own mock primary was conceived by history teachers Mr. Sanborn and Mr. Harley. According to Mr. Sanborn, McDonogh has held numerous mock elections over the years, but this is the first time that a mock primary has been staged.
The mock primary was originally supposed to be held on Tuesday, but due to the snow days it took place on “Super Thursday.” Two hundred fifty-eight students and teachers voted. Of that number, 198 were registered Democrats and 69 were Republicans. Barack Obama was the favored candidate of the Democratic Party over opponent Hillary Clinton, gaining 83% of the vote. The three most important issues to his supporters included the war in Iraq, the economy, and global warming.
On the other side of the political spectrum, John McCain was the favorite with 68% of the votes. His supporters cared most about the economy, the war in Iraq, and immigration. Coming in second, Ron Paul garnered 22% of the votes, while only 10% of Republicans voted for Huckabee.
As Mr. Sanborn pointed out, “this is the first ‘national primary,’ with over forty percent of the delegates to be decided on Super Tuesday.” He predicted that John McCain will be the Republican candidate, “as his primary opponents have too many negatives associated with political backgrounds.” He calls the Democratic contest a “toss-up,” but points out that mention of Senator Clinton “can conjure up some fairly nasty remarks and ill feelings, particularly in my Government class.”
However, those are just his personal views. The mock primary was necessary in order to see how the broader McDonogh community felt. To get it started, the Government classes set up a method of registration. After all, one of the main reasons that citizens don’t vote today is due to the fact that they simply don’t register. At McDonogh, registration consisted of filling out a half-page form with the voter’s name, grade, and signature, then placing it in the registration box outside of Room 5.
Prior to counting the results, Mr. Sanborn predicted that in terms of people registering, “we could end up closer to the national average, which is often around fifty percent in the presidential elections.” However, three days and a three-inch stack of registrations later, upper schoolers and faculty overshot his prediction. Seventy percent of the students registered to vote in the mock primary.
By grade, it ended up that 54.5% of freshmen registered, 78.3% of sophomores, 86.0% of juniors, and 60.3% of seniors. Also, thirty faculty members chose to participate. According to the registrations, around 64% of the Upper School registered as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, and 7% as Independents.