Klamath votes go to Republican candidates

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

By MARCIA McGONIGLE

If the state of Jefferson had electoral votes, they would have gone to President Bush.

Going against the statewide trend in Oregon and California, Klamath Basin voters - specifically Klamath, Lake, Siskiyou and Modoc counties - overwhelmingly supported George Bush in the race for the White House.

In Klamath County, Bush netted 72 percent of the vote to Sen. John Kerry's 26 percent. The numbers were similar in Lake County as well. There, Bush got 79 percent of the vote to Kerry's 21 percent.

In Siskiyou and Modoc counties, Bush also was the choice for the White House. More than 60 percent of Siskiyou voters supported Bush; slightly more than 37 percent voted for Kerry. In Modoc, Bush got 72 percent to Kerry's 26 percent.

But overall, Oregonians and Californians supported Kerry.

In California, the senator beat Bush 55 to 44 percent and earned the state's 55 electoral votes. In Oregon, 52 percent of voters supported Kerry and 47 percent voted for Bush. Kerry earned the state's 7 electoral votes.

Klamath and Lake county voters, however, did agree with the rest of the state on several ballot measures and in the races for U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.

Klamath and Lake voters supported Democratic incumbent Ron Wyden over Republican challenger Al King of Malin in Wyden's bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Wyden got 52 percent of the vote in Klamath to King's 45 percent, and in Lake, Wyden won with 54 percent to King's 46 percent.

Republican Greg Walden won statewide for re-election to the U.S. House Representatives, beating Democratic challenger John McColgan. In Klamath County, Walden garnered 80 percent of the vote to McColgan's 17 percent. In Lake County, Walden got 85 percent to McColgan's 14 percent.

Voters in Klamath and Lake counties also overwhelmingly supported Measure 36, which changes the state constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

Statewide, the measure passed 57 percent to 43 percent. In Klamath and Lake counties, support for the amendment was higher - 76 percent in Klamath and 73 percent in Lake.

Voters here also agreed with state voters, turning down a measure that would amend the Medical Marijuana Act, and overwhelmingly passing Measure 37 which would require government compensation for property owners when land-use issues devalued their property.

In Klamath, voters turned down the marijuana measure, 69 percent to 31 percent. In Lake, the numbers were similar - 73 percent to 27 percent.

Voters here approved the land-use measure 75 percent to 25 percent.

Statewide, Measure 35, which would limit noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits, appeared this morning to be losing, 50.5 percent to 49.4 percent, but voters in Klamath and Lake counties approved the cap - 62 percent to 38 percent and 70 percent to 30 percent, respectively.

Voters here also agreed to keep SAIF. The measure to abolish the state's biggest worker's compensation carrier was defeated statewide 61 to 39 percent. In Klamath, voters defeated the measure 62 to 38 percent. In Lake, it lost 64 to 36 percent.

In California, Siskiyou and Modoc voters supported Republicans for U.S. House and Senate.

In the race for U.S. Senate, Democrat Barbara Boxer took the state with 56 percent of the vote to Republican Bill Jones' 41 percent.

But in Modoc, Republican Bill Jones earned 66 percent to Boxer's 29 percent. In Siskiyou, Jones garnered 55 percent to Boxer's 40 percent.

Republican Wally Herger was the choice Siskiyou voters as well as California voters for the House.

Locally, he garnered 69 percent of the vote over Democrat Mike Johnson's 31 percent.

In a separate House race, Modoc voters supported Republican incumbent John Doolittle over his Democratic challenger David Winters, 75 percent to 25 percent.

Modoc and Siskiyou voters did their best to defeat a proposition that would devote $3 billion to human embryonic stem cell experiments, but overall state voters approved the measure.

In Modoc County, voters turned down stem cell research, 63 percent to 37 percent. In Siskiyou, the vote was 58 percent against the proposition and 42 percent for it.