Barack Obama is ahead of John McCain in the polls — the Cookie Poll, that is.

Andy Haas

Haas Bakery in Oregon is participating in the Cookie Poll with other bakeries across the country as part of the Retail Bakers of America’s 2008 Election Cookie Poll.

Each cookie gets a vote, owner Andy Haas said.

As of Oct. 13, Obama has 770 votes, and McCain stands at 580. Nationwide, 52 bakeries tallied a total of 16,943 votes for Obama cookies, and 12,600 cookies for McCain.

Haas said on Oct. 15 that the bakery’s one-cookie-for-one-vote poll started a few weeks ago, but Oct. 8 is when people really started becoming more interested.

“They buy them [cookies] for support, for work and some people buy them to play jokes on other people,” Haas said. “It’s kind of a sweet way to rub it on people and lighten the debate a little bit.”

Haas also participated in the Cookie Poll in the 2000 Al Gore versus George W. Bush election.

“Gore just edged out Bush, but it was really close,” Haas said.

Haas Bakery is decorating each cookie, which sells for $1.39 each. The red ones say “McCain 08” and the blue cookies say “Obama 08.”

Haas said McCain was ahead of Obama for some time, but, “When McCain was ahead last week, [Obama supporters] wanted to make sure Obama was ahead,” he said.

Haas said a lot of people enjoy the cookie competition.

“A lot of people take the election way too emotional, almost like a life-and-death issue,” he said. “This gets people to talk about things and not just argue and maybe this way they can use it to maybe do some good.”

At the end of each day the bakery adds up the votes and tallies them up on a chalkboard. Sometime there are trends, depending on who says what on the news.

“That reflects the real election,” Haas said. “It shows how many people are more supporting of whoever because they’re supposed to, rather than thinking about it.”

Patty Cooper, a counter clerk, said, “The customers seem excited about the cookies. They ask if Obama has stopped by.”

Karen Kane and Kimberly Brown recently bought Obama cookies from the bakery.

We need change,” Brown said. “We want Obama to win — we don’t need another recession.”

“Obama [cookie] all the way,” Barbara Adams, another customer, said. “One only has enough money to just buy one.”

Although this is all for fun, some people take the political cookies a little too seriously.

“Some people will come in and say give me some Obamas or give me some McCains,” he said. “[Others] make some rude comments.”

Haas will announce the winner of the poll after Nov. 4.

“I want this to be fun,” Haas said. “Everyone has their own reasons to make their mind up [about the candidates]. We’re all in the same boat together and we’re all going to have to deal with whatever happens.”

Haas said there’s so much conflict going on with the elections, “This is a little more light-heartedly,” Haas said. “We call it ‘sugar-coating politics.’ ”

To keep updated on the Cookie Poll, visit www.rbanet.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 2:12 am and is filed under Community, Election 2008.
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