N.C. first-time voters, African-Americans assist Obama

DURHAM, N.C. -- Emma Sell-Goodhand and Gerrie Freeman voted on opposite ends of town in the Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, but they were in agreement on at least one thing: They are eager to see Barack Obama become their party's nominee.

"I've only known Clintons and Bushes in the White House my whole life," said Sell-Goodhand, an 18-year-old senior at the Durham School of the Arts. "The idea of something new is important to me."

Freeman, 60, said she weighed voting for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and, like many fellow blacks, had supported former president Bill Clinton in his White House bids. "But I decided that voting for her is just putting Bill back in there for eight years," she said. "He's had his chance."

In capturing North Carolina, Obama relied on voters like these — students voting for the first time and African-Americans — for his core support. Blacks, who made up a third of the Democratic electorate in the Tar Heel State, backed Obama 13-to-1, according to interviews with voters as they left their polling places. Voters under 30 supported the Illinois senator nearly 3-to-1.

Working-class white voters, who accounted for three out of 10 voters, went for Clinton, exit polls showed.

The candidates "have divided up the traditional Democratic coalition half-and-half," said Ferrel Guillory, an expert on state politics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Whether it can come back together in the fall depends on how the loser loses — how he or she gives a signal to supporters that there will be either further bitterness or healing."

Tansy Wolf and David Perlman represent one slice of the divide. Wolf, a 19-year-old first-time voter, said she decided to support Obama this week after hearing a radio ad touting his refusal to accept campaign contributions from federal lobbyists. "Special-interest groups shouldn't be deciding what's going on in Washington," she said.

But Perlman, Wolf's fiancé, said Clinton got his vote Tuesday. "I don't know if Obama is going to be a strong enough leader to change things," said Perlman, 21, who works at Costco.

Voters interviewed around the state said Obama's leadership had been tested in recent weeks by the controversy over remarks by his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The comments included the assertion that the U.S. government could have been behind the spread of AIDS among blacks.

Anirudh Pratap, a 20-year-old junior at UNC-Chapel Hill and a Clinton supporter, said that made Obama more vulnerable to Republican attacks in the fall. "Hillary has baggage as well, but I think she is more well-versed about what to do when attacked," he said.

Polls showed that the Wright controversy damaged Obama's standing with white, blue-collar voters, but Guillory said Obama's aggressive outreach to young voters has brought millions of new voters to the party to "offset" working-class defections.

In North Carolina alone, a record 272,000 people registered to vote for the first time this year. Nearly three out of four were Democrats and independents eligible to vote in the primary.

Tom Miller, 52, a Durham attorney and Clinton supporter, predicted that Democrats will turn out in droves no matter who emerges as their party's standard-bearer in the fight against Republican John McCain.

"Democrats can't lose," Miller said. "We have two exceptional candidates."