Gary, Gary, Gary

The reports coming out of Lake County, Indiana sounded vaguely familiar. I remembered Hunter S. Thompson's account 36 years ago in the Ohio primary.

...All he needed to carry the state, now - along with the 38 convention delegates reserved for the statewide winner - was a half-respectable statewide showing from the twenty-first, the heatland of the black vote, a crowded urban fiefdom bossed by Congressman Louis Stokes.

Ten seconds after he picked up the phone Himmelman was screaming: "What? Jesus Christ! No! That can't be right!" (pause . . . ) Then: "Aw shit! That's impossible!"

He turned to Mankiewicz: "It's all over. Listen to this . . ." He turned back to the phone: "Give that to me again. . . okay, yeah, I'm ready." He waited until Mankiewicz got a pencil, then began reading the figures. A hundred and nine to one! A hundred and twenty seven to three! . . . Jesus!"

Manciewicz, flinched, then wrote down the numbers. Cadell slumped back in his chair and shook both fists at the ceiling. Himmelman kept croaking out the figures: a fantastic beating, ubelievable, the twenty-first district was a total wipeout.... "Say, how many votes do they have to count up there?"

"As many as they need," Mankiewicz muttered.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, pages 189-190, Warner Books, 1973
Deja

Mayor Rudy Clay came to his headquarters in Gary Tuesday night with a list of voting results showing overwhelming margins for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.
Many of the districts had Obama with triple digit totals and Clinton with totals in the single digits or teens. One district had a result of 126-4
Clay was one of only two Northwest Indiana mayors to endorse Obama.

Vu

With Hillary Clinton’s statewide lead under 40,000, the pending results from Lake County loom large.
While Clinton reportedly led voting in cities like Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay is indicating a huge margin in favor of Obama in his city.
It’s very lopsided,” Clay said, pointing to a hand-written list of precinct results.
According to his numbers, in most districts Clinton’s turnout in the city of Gary was near non-existent. One precinct saw 126 voters turn out for Obama, while only four voted for Clinton.
Clay said the election is seeing a record turnout in the city.
“We’re used to having maybe a 22, 23 percent turnout for a primary. We’re seeing numbers as high as 85 to 95 percent,” Clay said. “The Gary people took care of business.”