Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, greets the luncheon crowd yesterday during a stop at the Twin Oaks restaurant in Cranston.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — New York Sen. Hillary Clinton rode a record voter turnout to victory yesterday in Rhode Island’s Democratic presidential primary, crushing Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and rolling up big margins in communities from the coast to the Blackstone Valley.

It was an election day that shattered all previous Democratic primary voter turnouts, as more than 175,000 Democratic voters cast ballots, eclipsing the record of 167,000 set in the 1990 gubernatorial primary won by Bruce Sundlun.

“When I visited Rhode Island, I said that this little state would have a big voice in this election,” said Clinton in a statement last night. “I am so proud and honored to have such broad and decisive support from the great state of Rhode Island.”

That Rhode Island’s Democrats are still loyal Clinton fans was proven vividly again as she won convincingly in such traditional Democratic bastions as Pawtucket, Woonsocket, North Providence, Johnston, Central Falls and Warren.

Clinton handily took Warwick and Cranston, two West Bay communities that are crucial in Rhode Island elections. And she carried rural communities, including Burrillville, Glocester, Exeter, Foster, Hopkinton and Richmond.

Exit polls showed the New York senator forged her state victory on the strength of traditional Democratic voters: Roman Catholics and older women. More than half the Democratic voters were women, Catholics and older than 50. Roughly one-third of voters identified themselves as union members. Her 58-42 percent margin was similar to the 57-41 victory she won in neighboring Massachusetts Feb. 5.

Obama, who has none of the Clintons’ strong ties to the state, won Providence, the affluent suburbs of Barrington and East Greenwich and the university town of South Kingstown. He also won Block Island and Little Compton.

“Because tonight is so much about delegates we’ll be looking at the delegate count,” said Obama spokesman Caleb Weaver. “That is why we were fighting here in Rhode Island, even though this is Clinton country.”

On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain easily defeated his opponent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, on a day when McCain became his party’s presumptive nominee.

In Rhode Island, McCain had 17,342 votes, and Huckabee 5,766, with 98 percent reporting. McCain won the majority of the 17 delegates at stake yesterday. McCain’s state campaign chairman, Rep. Robert Watson, R-East Greenwich, said the delegate counts on the GOP side are probably moot at this point because Huckabee endorsed McCain.

“I presume we’ll have a united Republican party going into the convention and the general election,” Watson said.

Democrats will calculate the delegate allocations this morning, after all the mail ballot numbers are in, said state party chairman Lynch.

Clinton was the longtime favorite here. In September, a Brown University poll showed Clinton leading Obama 35 percent to 16 percent in a multi-candidate field.The Clinton-Obama contest boiled down to a furious search for voters in northern Rhode Island, under a driving rain that began in late afternoon.

By 6 p.m., the Obama campaign office in the old Peerless Building in downtown Providence, which teemed with volunteer activity night and day for the past three weeks, was empty; every available campaign worker was out working the streets, knocking on doors of supporters and pleading with them to vote.

“Let’s go, everybody out of here, we’ve got three hours left,” said Mike Dorsey, the Obama state campaign chief and voter turnout specialist.

A few blocks away on Broad Street, the Clinton forces were also working frenetically to turn out every last vote. Clinton herself called Providence radio station WRNI, the state’s national public radio affiliate, at 8 p.m. last night to urge any of her straggling supporters to get to the voting booths.

Exit polls conducted yesterday by the Associated Press showed that about three-quarters of Rhode Island voters interviewed said they are worried about their families’ financial situation. More than half said the economy is the most important issue, far outnumbering voters who ranked the war in Iraq and health care the most important issues.

Rhode Island has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs for two generations and voters here are skeptical about the benefits of international trade. More than half said foreign trade takes jobs from the state and less than a fifth believed international trade creates more jobs.

It was a Rhode Island presidential campaign for the ages. Never before had the state’s primary — held in March after the nominations are usually sewed up — been relevant nationally.

McCain, Huckabee, Clinton and Obama all stumped here. McCain, supported by most of the state’s GOP establishment, including Governor Carcieri, attracted 1,000 at a rally at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Warwick. Huckabee drew 500 at an event where he played his guitar, simultaneously entertaining and campaigning.

But it was the Democratic race that generated the most activity and excitement here. Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, campaigned in Rhode Island. Chelsea Clinton, the couple’s only child, made two trips to the state, focusing on the younger voters whom Obama has energized.

Obama drew by far the largest crowd of the campaign. Of the 10,000 or more who attended his speech at Rhode Island College Saturday, only 5,000 could fit inside the field house to hear it. It was the largest political rally in the state since then-President Clinton spoke in 1996 in downtown Providence.

Most of the Democratic political establishment lined up with Clinton, including Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse; U.S. Rep. James Langevin, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch. Obama won the support of U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the younger brother of the party chairman.

Some voters waited until the last minute to make up their minds. In Providence, Christine McElroy, 53, said she was swayed only in the last few days — and she was chagrined to admit that it was Obama’s television ads that won her vote.

“To be perfectly honest,” she said, “it sounds kind of crazy, but I think probably the commercials did it. I know they shouldn’t work, but I was just so undecided between the two Democratic candidates that watching the commercials pushed me. From watching the commercials, I just decided I wanted something new and fresh.”

Obama’s commercials were more positive, she said, and with the two Democrats so similar on the issues, in her mind, his hopeful message made a difference.

The Illinois senator’s ads were certainly more numerous — he outspent Clinton more than 3-to-1 here on TV commercials.

There were single-issue voters at the polls. Anthony Incollingo, 73, of Providence, said Obama’s stance against the Iraq war drew him. Incollingo worries that Iraq could become another Vietnam, unless U.S. troops are withdrawn soon. “I’ve lived the Vietnam thing, went to PC at that time. A lot of young men from my class died in Vietnam. And it went on and on and on until there were riots in the streets, and then finally it changed.”

At South Kingstown High School, Dorothy Devine said she attended Wellesley College with Clinton, and recalled the candidate’s graduation speech; she was the first student to deliver the commencement address.

“She was a campus leader,” Devine recalled, adding how Clinton told the crowd that her generation wanted to change the world.

Despite all the personal history, and that “many of my friends are voting for Hillary, I’m voting for Obama,” Devine said. “I like how he has the support of young people. I just don’t think she is effective.”

But University of Rhode Island film professor and librarian Michael Vocino said he was voting for Clinton.

“I think it’s time. I’m in my 60s and if we don’t elect a woman president now, I may never see it,” he said. “And Hillary is the most qualified candidate. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Barack Obama is a good candidate. We have two powerful candidates. But I think it’s time we elected a woman.”

John Garry, a 38-year-old lawyer from Bristol and a longtime Republican, voted for McCain.

Garry, who described himself as a veteran and Naval Academy graduate, said, “[McCain] is the sort of fellow I would like to have leading this country as the global war on terrorism continues,” he said. He didn’t think McCain is strong on economic policy, but expects he would surround himself with experts.

For former state Rep. Fausto Anguilla, of Bristol, just the simple act of Rhode Islanders performing their civic duties and voting was impressive.

Shortly after 7 a.m. at the Bristol Housing Authority polling place on Hope Street, Auguilla watched as an elderly woman walked slowly but resolutely toward the poll, using her cane for balance.

“Look at that and tell me this isn’t the greatest country in the world,” he said.

With reports from Dan Barbarisi, Alisha Pina and Arline Fleming.Mail and emergency ballots

Number of mail and emergency ballot applications taken out:

Democrat: 3,921 mail and 1,183 emergency for a total of 5,104.

Republican: 1,075 mail and 213 emergency for a total of 1,288.

The deadline for mail ballots was Feb. 12, and from then until 4 p.m. this Monday, 1,396 people applied for emergency ballots.

These were the number taken out, not the number returned.

marsenau@projo.com