Obama wins pumpkin election by a landslide

Mike Valladao has a book "Farmer Mike Grows Giant Pumpkins" coming out on Amazon by Thanksgiving.
A giant dracula pumpkin Valladao carved for a past Halloween. He's going to carve a 1,400 pounder later this week in northern California.
In 2004, Mike Valladao sculpted mugs of George W. Bush and John Kerry into a giant pumpkin at the Orange County Market Place. The votes went to Bush.
Mike Valladao, who lives in San Jose, is a professional pumpkin carver. His presidential pumpkin head elections at the OC Market Place in 2000 and 2004 accurately predicted that George W. Bush would win both times. Valladao would not say who he is voting for.
It took Mike Valladao four hours to carve this presidential pumpkin head Sunday at the OC Market Place. The 465-pound pumpkin was grown on a farm in Salinas and brought in by fork lift. Swap meet goers who cast a vote got stickers that read: I voted today for my favorite presidential pumpkin head.

By Lori Basheda | Orange County Register

October 26, 2008 at 3:00 a.m.

If Farmer Mike’s pumpkin head election is an accurate predictor, as it was in the last two presidential races, Barack Obama will be the country’s next commander in chief.

Mike Valladao, a professional pumpkin sculptor who has carved giants for MGM Grand and appeared on the “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, was at the Orange County Market Place Sunday carving side-by-side mugs of senators John McCain and Barack Obama into a 465-pound pumpkin with a Buck knife.

Swap meet goers cast votes for their favorite pumpkin head candidate and dropped them into a ballot box below the stage that Valladao worked on.

After three hours, 266 votes were cast. After swap meet officials tallied the results, Obama got 178 votes to McCain’s 88. It must be said that some of the voters were children.

Valladao held the same mock pumpkin election at the OC Market Place in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Both times, the majority of voters picked Bush as the winning pumpkin head.

Will he be right again?

Tell us: Who’s your favorite pumpkin head candidate? Vote below:

http://www.pollmonkey.com/s.asp?c=53719538&u=2517853249DisplayVote53249();

Contact the writer: 714-932-1705 or lbasheda@ocregister.com