"Very bullish" on Ohio and Florida

Published November 3, 2004 3:23AM (EST)

Kerry advisor Joe Lockhart just briefed reporters in Boston on how the vote is coming in. "We think that when the votes are counted and the spin is done, we'll be in very strong shape," he said.

Lockhart said that he expects the networks to put New Hampshire in Kerry's column very soon. He said that the campaign remains "very bullish" on Ohio based on the turnout in the state. "We had very positive turnout within the Democratic precincts, particularly in African-American communities," Lockhart said. "We had our precincts performing at 115 percent of our expectations, and we had Republican precincts coming in at 94.3 percent of our expectations."

He said the campaign is similarly confident of success in Florida. "We've had absolutely outstanding turnout in the southern part of the state: Miami-Dade, Broward, West Palm," he said. "We have very limited reporting in those counties in Florida now, but we think that the limited information we have gives us a 42,000-vote lead in Palm Beach County with less than half the vote in, and in Broward County we have a 200,000-vote lead with still over a quarter of the vote left to be counted."

Lockhart said Kerry will enjoy a "comfortable win" in Minnesota, and that he'll likely carry Iowa as well. Lockhart didn't say anything about Wisconsin, and he seemed to avoid discussing the state when he had the chance.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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