LIANE HANSEN, host:
Senator Barack Obama defeated Senator Hillary Clinton by a razor-thin seven votes in the presidential caucuses in Guam yesterday. It took all night to count the 4,500 ballots in the U.S. territory on the Pacific island. Public Radio KPRG in Guam has been covering the race, and General Manager Chris Hartig joins us. I say good evening to you, Chris.
Mr. CHRIS HARTIG (General Manager, KPRG): Thank you.
HANSEN: Wow, cliffhangers. What happened?
Mr. HARTIG: You know, I had said all along that we had no idea how this was going to fall. And it just really shows how Guam, like the rest of the U.S., is just - is as split as anybody. It's as tight as it could possibly be.
HANSEN: So, what were the big issues there and what were voters looking for?
Mr. HARTIG: Definitely the two major issues for Guam are the Marine relocation from Okinawa to Guam and how that military buildup is going to affect people on both sides of the fences - both on the military base and outside of the bases - and also war reparations for World War II, for the indigenous people who were held captive by the Japanese.
HANSEN: So, did the candidates actually court Guam voters on those issues? What did they say to perhaps woo the electorate?
Mr. HARTIG: Both sides had the same opinion on both issues but they were calling in to various shows and appearing on television on Guam and doing Guam-specific advertising, which is pretty unusual here.
HANSEN: Can you confirm this for me: there were reports of a village in Guam that had early voting and there was a festival last weekend. Both Senators Obama and Clinton had campaign tents. And it's reported the food might have tipped the scales?
Mr. HARTIG: Yeah, it's an anecdotal story. What happened is, is that Inarajan, which is the village, had a fiesta this weekend and so they actually held their caucus early as not to interfere with the fiesta. And the two tents had their various offerings. Obama, though, had barbecue and beer and one voter was quoted as saying that was better than what Hillary had and it was clearly giving him the upper hand.
HANSEN: Oh my goodness, pretty soon it'll be cookies again, right?
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HANSEN: So, what do Guamanians, what have they been telling you about all of this attention over a presidential primary?
Mr. HARTIG: People have been really, really surprised. Most people throughout their lives have been told that, you know, while we're part of the United States, we don't count for presidential politics. But since we're able to participate in the caucus system it just has never mattered before this time. It's never been this close this late in the game for the Guam caucus to matter.
So to get all this attention, I think people were both surprised, a little bit confused and really kind of loving the attention.
HANSEN: Chris Hartig is general manager of Public Radio KPRG in Guam. Thanks a lot.
Mr. HARTIG: Thank you.
HANSEN: And to hear more about the campaign from our political bloggers, go to NPR.org/SundaySoapbox.
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