Last Sunday, we said the Democratic caucus results should inspire debate about whether Lewiston-Auburn is changing. Both candidates have built-in constituencies here, and the eventual victor would speak volumes about us.

Well, Lewiston went for Sen. Hillary Clinton, Auburn for Sen. Barack Obama. The collective result was tight – only a three-delegate difference in Lewiston for Clinton, six for Obama in Auburn – a crystalline reflection of the neck-and-neck national campaign. Has anything changed?

Hard to tell. This outcome only seems to support the old saying – as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

The caucus in Lewiston, too, also supported an old conclusion: though years may pass, tension between Lewiston residents and Bates College students remains vigorous, and will probably never change.

Reaction from some caucus-goers about the Bates presence at last Sunday’s event has bordered on outrage, and renewed calls for laws to prohibit these academic interlopers from voting locally.

Legislation to this effect, sponsored by Rep. Gary Knight of Livermore, was rejected during the previous session. Rightly so – not only is the collegiate voting bloc too small to merit such control, erecting barriers to student political participation is foolhardy and counterproductive, as opposition only incites.

Many of the nation’s most stirring displays of political action started upon America’s college campuses. Yes, some may decry such institutions as bastions of liberal thought, but there’s wide political diversity inside higher education.

Bates, for example, boasts a strong, organized group of college Democrats. Republicans at Bates are also potent: their leader, Nathaniel Walton, is one of Maine’s leading young GOPers, as head of the Maine College Republicans.

Then there’s socioeconomic differences between residents and students, which is at the heart of much of the frustration. Similar concerns are evergreen in towns hosting colleges and universities, both large and small, especially one with the wide economic diversity as Lewiston. Yet this ancient ritual has no impact in voting.

America got rid of poll taxes and other disenfranchisement devices decades ago to strip financial qualifications from the voting booth; the laudable Maine and federal laws for clean elections and campaign finance reform are the modern iterations of this same sentiment.

Simply, what we’d thought we’d see from Democratic voting is an indication whether L-A’s political sensibilities were shifting from mill town to college town – the fundamental split many observers see in Democratic voting this year.

The tight margins inside the communities, however, leave drawing any substantial conclusion impossible.

What did become clear, in Lewiston, is the “mill town” candidate won, and there’s still tension between residents and college students. This says Lewiston is a mill town, and a college town.

Lesson learned? No. This is one we knew already.