So much for Stanford being a politically apathetic campus.

While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) were the clear winners in the California primaries Tuesday, Democratic voters on campus overwhelmingly chose Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as their choice for the party’s nominee, while Stanford Republicans threw the majority of their support behind Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.).

In exit polls conducted by The Daily throughout the day yesterday, Obama was the clear winner among Stanford voters who participated in the Democratic primary.

The Illinois senator received support from nearly 75 percent of the 159 Democratic voters polled at the only on-campus polling location, the Graduate Community Center. Clinton, Obama’s sole challenger, placed a distant second with about 23 percent support among Stanford voters.

The results were no surprise to Debashish Bakshi ‘08, the Stanford chapter coordinator of Students for Barack Obama, who said turnout was so high at the on-campus polling place yesterday that election monitors ran out of official Democratic ballots and had to resort to giving voters photocopies of sample ballots.

“The real difference [between Clinton and Obama] is something about where we want to go as a country,” Bakshi said. “Young people don’t want to be locked for the rest of their lives into a stale and outdated political system. Young people want something new, they want something better.”

“If Clinton is president, things will be better than they are now, but we will have no direction,” he added. “If Obama is president, we will have a clear and well-articulated direction.”

The Republican race was largely overshadowed by the hotly contested Democratic battle, as Republicans made up only 22 percent of voters in The Daily’s exit polls. On the Republican side, Paul led his rivals with 46 percent of the 44 Stanford GOP voters polled. McCain was second with 21 percent, while Mitt Romney placed third with 18 percent and Mike Huckabee finished fourth with 16 percent.

Though Obama received a majority of support among both genders and every age and ethnic group (except Latinos) in The Daily’s exit polls, he scored particularly well among men, who supported him by a nearly nine-to-one margin, and among African- and Asian-Americans, who both threw more than 90 percent of their support behind the Illinois senator.

While women nationwide tended to support Clinton, the story was different at Stanford on Tuesday, where 60 percent of women voters cast their ballots for Obama; Clinton was the choice of 36 percent of women, according to The Daily’s exit polls. In addition, the Illinois senator drew the support of 59 percent of white voters, while Clinton won 27 percent. In fact, Latinos were the only group that Clinton won in The Daily’s exit polls; she drew 57 percent of Latino voters in comparison to Obama’s 43 percent.

The Clinton Camp

Despite the tremendous support for Obama on campus, it was Clinton who won the Golden State — the biggest prize of Super Tuesday — by a comfortable margin.

Mishan Araujo ‘08, the Northern California chair of Women for Hillary — a branch of Clinton’s national presidential campaign — dismissed Obama’s big win on campus as a predictable outcome and pointed to policy differences, rather than character distinctions, as the important talking points between the two candidates.

“[Obama’s win on campus] doesn’t worry me because it’s expected,” Araujo said. “It’s easy to cling to Obama’s messages and the slogans he uses, but I think when you look beyond all that, when you look to [Hillary’s] policies and his policies, particularly on the economy and healthcare, you realize that it takes more than hope to make change.”

Araujo cited Clinton’s wins in key Northeastern states like New Jersey as evidence of her nationwide appeal. Clinton also won last night in Arizona, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and New York, her home state.

The Obama Camp

While Obama may have earned the support of nearly three-quarters of Stanford Democratic voters in The Daily survey, he failed to win California despite recent polls indicating that he had closed the gap in the Golden State.

Bakshi offered a positive outlook on the California returns, which at press time indicated about a 14-point lead for Clinton.

“Winning California would’ve been more symbolic for Obama,” he said, “but given the delegate breakdown, we’re most likely going to earn a split.”

Every Democratic primary or caucus yesterday afforded the candidates proportional delegates, making it hard for either Clinton or Obama to pull significantly ahead. Such a system means that the Democratic candidates will likely earn similar numbers of delegates in all the states that were close yesterday. The Republicans, by contrast, competed in both proportional contests and winner-take-all races.

Bakshi downplayed Clinton’s wins in California and the populous Northeastern states as victories that were expected for months but ended up being much closer than expected.

“For us to be in a situation where it’s an achievement for Hillary to win New York, New Jersey and California is unbelievable,” he said. “Today was supposed to be the end. That’s completely changed. This race has become incredibly competitive.”

Obama actually claimed more states than his rival last night. The Illinois senator won his home state, as well as Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah, giving him a total of 13 states won to Clinton’s eight victories on Super Tuesday. The winner in New Mexico was still unclear late into Tuesday night.

The Road Ahead

While the candidates’ supporters may disagree on the importance of the California returns and on the implications of Super Tuesday as a whole, they all agree that the fight for the nomination will be a protracted one that could last well into April and even until the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

“It’s going to be a hard race and a longer race than tonight,” Araujo said. “It is exciting that we have two candidates that are so appealing to so many Democrats, but I think the kinds of states that Hillary won tonight, the kinds of core Democratic states like New York and California, mean a lot going forward.”

Meanwhile, Bakshi said the Obama campaign is in a great position to capture the nomination after coming out of Super Tuesday with a majority of states won.

“I feel that we’re in a position to go into the post-Super Tuesday phases with an advantage,” he said. “[Obama’s] campaign has always been better when there’ve been fewer states to deal with at a time because that’s where Obama shines.”

“Our fundraising advantage is massive,” Bakshi added. “We’re well funded and we have a fantastic operation on the ground in the remaining states. We’re ready to move into the stage where we have a comparative advantage over the Clinton campaign.”

Stanford Democrats Co-President Beth D’Aunno ‘09 offered her perspective on the tightening race, noting that she saw both positives and negatives.

“It is good that every state will have a voice in this election,” D’Aunno said. “Each candidate in the race will have been given a fair shot at this.”

“I do think [the protracted election] will make it harder for us to unite behind a candidate to project a strong front toward whomever we go up again on the Republican side,” she added. “I think we will fully support either candidate in the end.”