Democratic Presidential Candidate Obama Wins Oregon Primary; Opponent Clinton Wins Kentucky Primary

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Tuesday won the Oregon primary with 58% of the vote, compared with 42% for opponent Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), with 88% of precincts reporting, CNN.com reports. In the Kentucky primary, Clinton won with 65% of the vote, compared with 30% for Obama (CNN.com, 5/21).

A telephone poll in Oregon, where residents vote by mail, found that 20% of Democratic primary voters cited health care as their most important election issue, compared with 45% who cited the economy and 31% who cited the war in Iraq (AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/20). Among Oregon Democratic primary voters who cited health care as their most important election issue, 58% supported Obama, and 42% favored Clinton, the poll found (CNN.com, 5/21).

In Kentucky, an exit poll found that 11% of Democratic primary voters cited health care as their most important election issue, compared with 67% who cited the economy and 19% who cited the war in Iraq (AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/20). Among Kentucky Democratic primary voters who cited health care as their most important election issue, 60% supported Clinton, and 32% favored Obama, according to the poll (CNN.com, 5/21).

The telephone poll, conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International from May 12 to May 18, surveyed residents in Oregon who said that they voted or planned to vote in the Democratic primary. The exit poll, also conducted by Edison and Mitofsky, included responses from 1,407 Democratic primary voters in Kentucky. Both polls had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points (AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune, 5/20).