While former President Bill Clinton’s brief visit here Monday night possibly could have been responsible for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s slim 12-vote Person County win over Barack Obama in the heated Democratic presidential primary, the 41st president’s spirited campaigning wasn’t enough to put his wife over the top in the Tar Heel State as Obama, as predicted carried North Carolina. The unofficial margin had Tar Heel voters giving Obama 56 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 41.7 percent.

In the Republican presidential preference primary, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive nominee, easily outdistanced the field in Person County, amassing virtually 74 percent of the county’s Republican vote, as Mike Huckabee ran hardly a token second place, capturing not quite 14 percent. McCain’s statewide margin was virtually identical.

That pattern continued among other races, as the winners selected by Personians on Tuesday likewise took the honors in their statewide or district contests.

Person County Democrats gave Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue a healthy victory over state Treasurer Richard Moore. Purdue captured nearly 51 percent of the vote here and 56 across the state, to gain the nomination over Moore, who polled 45 percent in Person but about 40 percent statewide.

Person Republicans gave the nod to Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory over second place finisher state Sen. Fred Smith. But the unofficial results showed McCrory with only 10 votes more than Smith here, as the two finished in a virtual dead heat. McCrory had 39.9 percent of the Person vote to Smith’s 39.2 percent.

McCrory, however, pulled away in the state balloting, capturing 46 percent of the vote to Smith’s 37 percent and thereby avoiding a runoff for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and the right to face Perdue in the fall.

The Democratic primary for the U. S. Senate from North Carolina on Tuesday found Person County Democrats in sync with their counterparts across the state. State Sen. Kay Hagan scored 63 percent of the Person County vote in easily outdistancing her closest challenger, businessman Jim Neal, who polled just under 15 percent here.

Similarly, Hagan easily defeated Neal for statewide honors, posting 60 percent to Neal’s 18 percent, thereby gaining the opportunity to challenge incumbent U. S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, who easily swept her primary Tuesday over token challenger Pete Di Lauro. Dole took 92 percent of the vote in Person County and almost 90 percent among North Carolina Republicans.

Closer to home, incumbent U. S. Rep. Brad Miller of Wake County also easily won the right to carry the Democratic banner anew into the general election, where he’ll face Republican nominee Hugh Webster, the former state senator from Caswell and later Alamance counties. On Tuesday, Miller swept to victory with more than 90 percent of the Person County vote and almost 89 percent across the far-flung district, with Wake County on the eastern end and part of Guilford County on the western end. Miller defeated primary challenger Derald Hafner, an organic farmer.

In the contest for the N. C. Senate in the 23rd District, which includes Person and Orange County, incumbent Ellie Kinnaird won the Democratic nod for a seventh straight term on Tuesday, as she turned aside a challenge from Moses Carey, veteran chairman of the Orange Board of County Commissioners, in both counties.

Person voters gave Kinnaird 4,138 votes (57.2 percent) to 3,097 (41.8 percent) for Carey. Orange County Democrats made the margin even larger, as Kinnaird almost doubled Carey’s vote total, 22,946 to 11,885.

The Person County Board of Elections will meet Tuesday, May 13, to conduct the official canvass of all primary balloting in the county and to formally certify the Person County winners in all contests.

The State Board of Elections reported Tuesday that 35.9 percent of North Carolina’s registered electorate participated in Tuesday’s primaries.