LITTLE ROCK — As was widely expected, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney grabbed Arkansas’ six electoral votes easily Tuesday.
The GOP nominee visited the state once in August to scoop up cash at a private Little Rock fundraiser and didn’t open an official campaign office in the state.
But the sparse presence of the Romney campaign in this nonbattleground state didn’t appear to hurt his efforts at the polls.
“I think that Arkansans were clearly opposed to the policies of Barack Obama and were looking for a good alternative and found a solid alternative in Mitt Romney. From what they read and from his history they were very excited to vote for him,” said state Republican Party chairman Doyle Webb.
Romney netted healthy margins over President Barack Obama in most of the state. Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Socialism and Liberation Party candidate Peta Lindsay were also on the ballot.
In incomplete and unofficial results with 1,433 of 2,386 precincts reporting at 10:51 p.m.:
Romney. . . . . . . . . . . . . 512,664 Obama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313,448 Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,021 Stein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,065 Lindsay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,354
Democrats haven’t carried Arkansas since 1996, when native son Bill Clinton was on the ballot.
Obama, who has yet to visit the state as president, focused his re-election efforts elsewhere. Still, his state headquarters in North Little Rock were full of optimism about his national chances early Tuesday evening.
“I’ve seen all the polls and everything. They don’t know nothing,” said Carolyn Fleming, a Little Rock resident who was waving a huge Obama sign outside the headquarters around 6 p.m. “He needs to be given the right to continue in what he’s doing.”
Obama’s Arkansas getout-the-vote director Darrell Stephens said the office had about 50 volunteers continuing to call North Carolina voters and would be on standby to make last-minute calls to other battleground states later Tuesday. The campaign’s watch party was at Sticky Fingers in Little Rock’s River Market District.
Stephens said he would be thrilled if Obama received more than 40 percent of the vote here.
By 11 p.m., that scenario had all but evaporated for the president, who was seemingly headed for a worse defeat in the state than he suffered four years ago.
State Democratic Party spokesman Candace Martin said that while Obama’s Arkansas performance wasn’t strong, his national numbers looked good at 10 p.m.
“What we are most focused on here is what happens with the state races. There are still a great deal of votes out there for those races just as there are across the country for President Obama,” Martin said.
In west Little Rock, Republicans gathered at the Embassy Suites. About 500 people were expected to watch the returns, entering under the glare of spotlights and a mass of Romney signs, said state Republican Party spokesman Katherine Vasilos.
“It’s a big production. The news is going on everywhere. People are monitoring the presidential election, but the buzz is really about the Legislature,” Vasilos said shortly after the polls closed. Republicans hoped to win control of the Arkansas House and Senate for the first time since Reconstruction.
In 2008, Obama lost the state by 20 percentage points to GOP nominee John Mc-Cain, winning only nine of the states’ 75 counties. On Tuesday around 10:30 p.m., Obama led in just four counties: Jefferson, Woodruff, Phillips and Pulaski, according to the secretary of state’s office. Earlier returns by The Associated Press also had Obama leading in Hempstead, Crittenden, Lee and Monroe counties.
Obama’s best showing at 10:45p.m. was in Jefferson County, where he led by 16,261 to 8,330 — a little less than a 2-to-1 ratio, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Romney was leading in 36 of 75 counties by 10:45 p.m. The remaining 35 counties had not yet reported voting totals to the secretary of state’s office.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/07/2012