By Howard Koplowitz
With former Mayor Rudy Giuliani out of the race before the primary, the borough's registered Republicans were less enthusiastic to turn out. Only 20 percent of the 92,656 GOP voters in Queens went to the polls.While U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) won the borough with 60 percent of the vote, rival U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) Ð an African American who captured 38 percent of the Queens vote Ð won many of the election districts in southeast Queens.On the Republican side, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) easily won Queens with 55 percent of the vote, defeating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 30 percentage points.The precincts with the largest and second-largest margins of victory for Clinton in the city were in Queens, where she received 89 percent of the vote in a Queensboro Hill precinct compared to 10 percent for Obama, according to preliminary election results reported by the Associated Press. She also carried 83 percent of the vote in an Elmhurst precinct Ð her second-largest margin of victory in the city Ð with Obama receiving 17 percent.Obama, whose largest margin of victory in the city came in Brooklyn Ð a borough that he narrowly lost to Clinton Ð had his second and third-largest margins of victory in two southeast Queens precincts.In a Springfield Gardens precinct, Obama received 73 percent of the vote compared to 25 percent for Clinton. He captured an endorsement from that neighborhood's councilman, James Sanders, who was the only southeast Queens elected official to back Obama. In a St. Albans precinct, Obama cornered 69 percent Ð his third largest margin of victory in the city. Clinton pulled in 30 percent in that precinct.While Obama won much of southeast Queens, his margin of victory in the area was mostly under 50 percentage points. Clinton was stronger than Obama in other parts of the borough, pulling in margins of victory higher than 50 percent in northeast and western Queens.Queens was also home to the tightest vote. Clinton received one more vote than Obama in Far Rockaway and Bayswater, where she garnered 2,068 votes to 2,067 for Obama.Of the borough's roughly 594,000 registered Democratic voters, 194,612 turned out to vote in the primary, known as Super Tuesday because of the large number of delegates that were at stake.In 2004, 70,779 Democratic voters in Queens cast a ballot in the primary Ð less than half of those who did so this year.New York's Democratic primary is not a winner-take-all system, meaning the second-place finisher is still awarded delegates.Clinton, who won the state with 57 percent of the vote to Obama's 40 percent, received 139 delegates. Obama received 93 delegates from New York.Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 173.
