Many credit Rendell for Clinton win

But were there state reps., senators, mayors and city council people who would have endorsed Barack Obama but were reluctant to go against the Governor?
Jim Pitcherella
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Many credit Rendell for Clinton win

By Amy Worden
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG - Ask pollsters or political analysts or Democratic Party leaders, and they all say Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's more than nine-percentage-point primary victory Tuesday would not have been possible without the support of Gov. Rendell - a politician extraordinaire and prodigious fund-raiser.
Depending on whom you talk to, Rendell's omnipresence on the campaign trail, enormous popularity, and fine-tuned political machine are responsible for between two and five points of Clinton's nearly double-digit win.
"Clinton has gotten support from other governors in other states, but she has been served better and stronger [by Rendell] than anyone else," said Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, who attributed two to three points to the Rendell factor.
For contrast, some point to the other top Democrat in the state, Sen. Bob Casey, who endorsed Sen. Barack Obama but was unable to deliver critical votes from heavily Catholic areas in the west or even in his own hometown of Scranton - where the Casey family has reigned as political royalty for a century and a half.
"I thought his endorsement of Barack Obama would stop the bleeding in the northeast," said James Hoefler, a political science professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle. "But, apparently, it didn't."
Clinton won by a 3-1 ratio in Casey's home county of Luzerne.
Casey agreed Rendell was "a great asset" to Clinton, but said in an interview that she also benefited from her husband's two presidential campaigns in the state, as Casey did from the campaigns of his father, Gov. Robert P. Casey.
Speaking to reporters in a conference call, Rendell dismissed any role he might have played in Clinton's win, and argued Casey should not be blamed for Obama's defeat.
"I think endorsements by politicians for president don't mean jack," Rendell said yesterday. "That was clearly proved with the Bob Casey endorsement. . . . Casey voters around the state voted for Clinton, 70-30, and in his hometown [Scranton], 75-25."
Rendell added: "The city I come from" - Philadelphia - "voted for Sen. Obama, 65-35. I didn't do such a hot job."
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