GOP Spoilers Are Fueling Clinton Surge

Conservative campaign to keep Democratic fight alive is working

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 17, 2008 1:36 PM CDT

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GOP Spoilers Are Fueling Clinton Surge — Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton D-N.Y. celebrate as a projection is made declaring Clinton the winner of the state of New Jersey in the Super Tuesday primary voting Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Republicans for Clinton are turning up in surprising numbers, and not because they've stopped being Hillary haters, the Boston Globe reports. About 100,000 voted for her in Ohio, 119,0000 in Texas, and 38,000 in MIssissippi. Egged on by Rush Limbaugh, they're strategically voting in open primaries for the Democrat they consider weaker—and the best way keep the brutal Democratic battle alive.

Before Texas and Ohio,Obama was drawing more GOP support than Clinton; after Limbaugh's call to arms, crossover voting doubled, and it swung heavily to Clinton's column. Of course not all crossovers were necessarily spoilers, but the GOP votes for Clinton in the Texas primary totalled 18,000 more than than her margin of victory over Obama. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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