BOSTON—Hillary Rodham Clinton wasn't the only winner in Massachusetts. There also were the rank-and-file lawmakers whose work was overshadowed by Barack Obama's A-list supporters, along with female and working-class voters.
Gov. Deval Patrick and Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry took a hit by failing to deliver their home state for Obama, although observers say their political clout won't be damaged much. The election showed that endorsements are overrated, they said.
"We just don't like being told what to do," Senate President Therese Murray, who before Super Tuesday expressed frustration that the state's top male elected officials were siding with Obama, said on Wednesday.
Clinton won 56 percent of the vote to Obama's 41 percent in Massachusetts during record turnout Tuesday. Nearly two-thirds of women voters cast ballots for Clinton while male voters broke nearly even between the two candidates, according to exit polling.
On the Republican side, former Gov. Mitt Romney won with 51 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for John McCain and 4 for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Murray, a Plymouth Democrat who is the state's first female Senate president, said women are voting on "pocketbook and security issues."
"Those are the things that concern them," she said. "They're worried about what happens if they lose their paycheck if this economy spirals any further. Sen. Obama is an inspirational speaker and he moves people, but at the end of the day what has he really done?"
Carol Hardy-Fanta, director of the nonpartisan Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, said female voters like that Clinton is a viable candidate.
"The fact that she's electable matters a lot to women," she said. "If she can't win, being a woman, it's hard to imagine who could."
The Massachusetts primary showed that working-class voters helped carry Clinton to victory. She won 77 percent of the vote in Fall River, 74 percent in Everett, 70 percent in New Bedford, 65 percent in Quincy, and 62 percent in Worcester.
Voters who described themselves as politically moderate favored Clinton almost 2-to-1 over Obama, according to exit polling. Obama had a slight majority of voters who described themselves as "very liberal."
Obama won Boston with 53 percent and captured liberal communities including Cambridge (63 percent), Northampton (58 percent) and Amherst (66 percent). He also won in the wealthy western suburbs of Boston, including Weston and Concord.
Gov. Patrick's hometown of Milton voted 50 percent for Clinton compared to 45 percent for Obama.
Murray, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and dozens of state lawmakers also cranked up their campaign machines to help Clinton.
"We did it ourselves," the Senate president said. "We made phone calls. We held signs. I was at the commuter rail station at 7 a.m. We're used to doing this. That's what we do."
Whether or not they produce votes, endorsements can still help campaigns, said Tobe Berkovitz, interim dean of Boston University's college of communications.
"What the Kennedy endorsement did was it bought Barack Obama five days of positive media coverage," he said. "That does not translate into votes. What it does is it keeps your candidate on the front page."
Democratic activist Debra Kozikowski of Chicopee disagreed, arguing that Kennedy's endorsement helped Obama reduce Clinton's lead in Massachusetts, even while barely campaigning here.
"The Clintons have long arms in this state, over years of making friends in this state," she said, declining to say for whom she voted. "I think (Obama) did very well."
Obama backers put the Massachusetts results into a national context. On the busiest primary night in U.S. history, Clinton and Obama were separated by 40 delegates, with several hundred yet to be allocated. Neither candidate is even halfway to the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.
Obama's supporters took an optimistic view on the Massachusetts loss.
"Sen. Clinton is very popular in Massachusetts," said Alan Solomont, who coordinates Obama's fundraising in New England. "We started way behind. We came from behind, but there wasn't the time to develop the organization we needed to carry the day."
Clinton fundraiser Steve Grossman, noting a recent poll showing Clinton and Obama neck and neck in Massachusetts before Tuesday, said "anybody who says they were not stunned by the margin of victory is making it up."
"Massachusetts women came out in droves to support Hillary, to some extent they felt that the powers that be were so aligned against them this was the only way to express themselves," he said.
Turnout of more than 1.75 million people set a new primary election record, surpassing 1980 when more than 1.3 million people voted on a ballot that included Sen. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter on the Democratic side, and Republicans Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
