Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Ty Cobb The U's College Democrats bucked the trend of the young vote -- and of those pictured -- and didn't endorse Barack Obama.

The U's chapter of the College Democrats voted last week to endorse Hillary Clinton for president.

Oakley Gordon, the club's president, said the dozen or so Democratic students who attended the club's meeting last week voted to support Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin.

College-aged voters in other primary states have tended to favor Barack Obama, Clinton's opponent for the Democratic nomination.

"Yes, I was a bit surprised," Gordon said of the vote. "I had thought it would go to Obama."

A straw poll conducted by the U's Hinckley Institute of Politics in October showed that Obama was the favorite Democratic candidate among the nearly 1,800 students surveyed.

"I and other members of (College Democrats) felt experience is an important factor and a necessity for a candidate to have when they are in office," said Anastasia Niedrich, a senior political science major who also works as an opinion columnist for The Daily Utah Chronicle.

A recent Dan Jones poll shows Obama leading Clinton 53 to 29 percent among Utah voters.

"Here at the University of Utah, there is widespread and active support for Barack Obama," Andrew Savage, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said in an e-mail. "Obama buttons and pins fly off the shelf and an active group of Students for Barack Obama have been canvassing and calling for this campaign in Salt Lake."

The U chapter of the College Republicans has not endorsed a candidate. Jeremy Strand, chairman of the club, said the national constitution of the College Republicans prohibits chapters from endorsing a candidate until the party's nominee is selected.


d.gardiner@chronicle.utah.edu

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