DANVERS — The presidential election is a week away, but victory is looking sweet for Sarah Palin at a local bakery.
If the election had been held Monday and measured in sugar cookies, the Republicans would have won, with the vice presidential candidate as the top cookie-getter.
After all, a sugar cookie with her likeness on it has been selling like, well, hotcakes at Cakes for Occasions, 57 Maple St.
For the past few weeks, the bakery has kept track of the number of cookies it's sold with the four candidates' pictures on them.
The way the cookie crumbles in this half-baked election, the Republican cookies are still ahead, but they have seen an early lead eaten away by Democrats.
Two weeks ago, Republicans led with 774 cookies to the Democrats' 530, or nearly 60 percent of the vote, said the bakery's owner, Kelly Delaney.
Last Monday, the Republicans' lead had slipped to nearly 55 percent of the cookies sold, as the race tightened to l,155 Republican cookies to 957 Democratic ones. Republican cookies upped their lead slightly at the bakery this week.
"This is the only place in town where you can vote more than once," Delaney said.
The poll isn't exactly scientific, and it has plenty of margarine of error based on customers' preferences.
"(Customers) don't know whether they should buy the candidate they want or the candidate they don't want and take a bite out of their head," said Lynne Sheeley, the bakery's marketing coordinator.
"A lot of people are buying (Palin) for jokes, and a lot of people want to nibble her ear," Delaney said.
The candidates' likenesses are printed on edible sugar paper using an ink made of food coloring. The pictures are then applied to a rectangular cookie with royal icing. They sell for $2.50 a pop.
So far, the smiling, bespectacled Alaskan governor has garnered the most sales with approximately nearly 33 percent of cookies sold.
Following close on Palin's heels is Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has snatched more than 26 percent of sales. The top of the Republican ticket, John McCain, weighs in with nearly 24 percent.
Say it ain't so, Joe, but few buyers seem to want to stomach a cookie with the picture of the tieless Democratic vice presidential candidate, whose cookies represent a 17 percent of sales.
At first, Delaney said she even had a hard time giving away his cookies at a Kiwanis event.
"I had to plead for people to take Biden," said the owner of the bakery, now in its 13th year.
Sales have picked up somewhat for Biden as Delaney and her staff had to bake more, she said.
The day of the third and final debate proved a banner day, and the bakery sold 12 dozen.
Whatever the outcome, the cookies have done what Delaney intended: brought a measure of sweetness to customers bitter about the election and the economy.
Delaney said with the election near, many are buying them to show support.
"I want three Sarahs and three McCains," said Mary Riley of Wakefield, who works as a recovery nurse at Salem Hospital and who came all the way to Danvers to buy the cookies.
"I have to go down there and register my vote," she said.
Delaney said she did not think news of the cookie election, designed on a whim, would spread beyond her front window, but it did — like butter. She has even fielded orders online from as far away as Florida.
Delaney said the cookies were also a way for a small business to make some dough during a slowing economy.
"We have to be creative," she said.
Counting cookies
Republican cookies sold — 1,656 (138 dozen)56.6%
Democratic cookies sold — 1,272 (106 dozen)43.4%
Sarah Palin — 960 cookies (80 dozen)32.8%
Barack Obama — 768 cookies (64 dozen)26.2%
John McCain — 696 cookies (58 dozen)23.8%
Joseph Biden — 504 cookies (42 dozen) 17.2%
Results as of Monday, Oct. 27. On Nov. 3, final results will be announced in the bakery's window and online at www.cakes4occasions.com.
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