McCain wins Virginia GOP, Obama trounces Clinton

by Mark Silva

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Sen. John McCain carried Virginia’s Republican presidential primary Tuesday, projections show, with big wins in urban areas offsetting a strong vote for former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas in rural quarters.

The Arizona senator’s apparent victory here, in a “winner-take-all’’ state for Republicans, will boost his already substantial lead in delegates needed for his party’s nomination while Huckabee continues to court his party’s most conservative voters.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois also solidly won Virginia’s Democratic contest on Tuesday, with the start of a potential “Potomac primary’’ sweep that could position the junior senator from Illinois as front-runner for his party’s presidential nomination.

Results from the third contest Tuesday – Maryland’s primary – were delayed by a 90-minute extension in poll closings, to 9:30 pm EST, because of a traffic-snarling mix of freezing rain and snow around Washington.

On the Republican side of primary voting in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., McCain was hoping to reinforce a sizeable advantage in his bid for the GOP’s nomination. Huckabee insisted he will challenge McCain until the end.

But it was the results of Democratic voting which lent renewed suspense to the campaign heading forward, with Obama securing wins that could boost him in looming big-state contests with Clinton.

Obama drew support from Clinton’s usual stronghold of women and drew heavily from African-American voters who have been loyal to him in all the early contests. Clinton strategists maintained that the Potomac region’s demographics, particularly with its wealth and its relatively high percentage of African-Americans, favored Obama’s campaign.

Yet, in Virginia, the former first lady was hoping to offset Obama’s advantage by winning immigrants and former Clinton administration members in the Washington suburbs – together with working class voters outside of Richmond and Charlottesville and throughout rural areas.

“Hello, this is Hillary Clinton and we have a chance to change America today,’’ the senator said in automated telephone calls to voters in Virginia as the polls were closing Tuesday, citing health care and college education as primary concerns. “If you stand up for me today, I’ll stand up for you every day in the White House.’’

The message which Clinton employed with working class voters here – focusing heavily on universal health care and job creation – is likely to amp up in Texas and Ohio, the delegate-rich states where Clinton hopes to make a stand in early March.

At the same time, broadcasting a campaign message throughout Ohio and Texas requires big money, something which Clinton could have trouble raising in the weeks ahead, following Tuesday’s losses and a weekend of primary election losses to Obama.

It was the Democratic voting which held the greatest drama for a virtually tied contest: With Obama carrying a weekend winning-spree to the steps of the nation’s capital, a frustrated Clinton already was already turning her attention toward bigger contests in early March. The senator from New York moved on to campaign in Texas before polls had even closed here.

Both Clinton and Obama remain far from collecting the 2,025 convention delegates needed for the Democratic presidential nomination. But the two entered Tuesday’s contests nearly tied – with Clinton claiming 1,147 delegates and Obama 1,142.

Obama, long an underdog in this contest, hoped to erase Clinton’s edge and take the lead in the party’s contests Tuesday, with 168 pledged delegates at stake in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

McCain has cornered far more delegates for his party’s nomination than either of his remaining Republican rivals -- 719 for McCain, with 1,191 needed for nomination. Huckabee had 241 delegates heading into Tuesday’s voting, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas 14. With 116 at stake on Tuesday, McCain hoped to inch closer to his anticipated nomination.

For Obama, Tuesday’s three primaries along the Potomac could deliver powerful new momentum, extending a weekend sweep of victories in the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Maine, Nebraska and Washington.

For Clinton, who had faced opinion polls portraying a strong advantage for Obama in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia heading into Tuesdsay's voting, the next challenge lies in big states down the road. Clinton already is airing radio ads in Wisconsin, which will hold its open primary in a week on Feb. 19, and she was touting a new endorsement by retired senator and astronaut John Glenn of Ohio in a bid to regain her campaign’s steam in the delegate-rich primaries of Ohio and Texas on March 4.

The Clinton campaign is deploying her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to campaign in Wisconsin on Valentine’s Day – with the 42nd president planning stops Thursday in Milwaukee, Madison and La Crosse.

Clinton, who loaned her own campaign $5 million as money was running short, also has reported reenergized fundraising since the Super Tuesday voting on Feb. 5, when she claimed major-state victories in New York, California and elsewhere. Obama carried more states – from Colorado to Connecticut and from Minnesota to Georgia – and was hoping to ride a wave of wins through Tuesday.

Open-voting Virginia, the biggest prize Tuesday, offered favorable territory for both Obama and McCain, who have benefited from the ability of swing-voting members of both parties and independent voters to support them in open primary contests. This also is an important, shifting state which has turned toward Democratic in recent state elections and could provide the party with a new, key Southern state in November’s election.

“We bring in voters who haven’t given Democrats a chance’’ in the past, said Obama pollster Cornell Belcher, citing support from independents.

Mark Penn, Clinton’s chief strategist, countered that Clinton holds appeal for women voters and Hispanics. "Hillary Clinton has a coalition of voters well-suited to winning the general election," he said.

The Maryland and D.C. contests were closed to party members.

Huckabee hoped to stake a claim in Virginia, adding to a string of Southern state primary victories, including his home state of Arkansas.

He has insisted that he will not “walk off the field’’ until it is certain that McCain has claimed the nomination. The former governor of Arkansas and ordained Baptist minister maintains that McCain will have a difficult time rallying “the foot soldiers’’ of the Republican Party – the social conservatives whom Huckabee has successfully courted in many places.

Huckabee, at a breakfast with reporters in Washington on Tuesday, also offered an assessment across party lines:

People have “underestimated Barack Obama and his capacity to inspire,’’ Huckabee said Tuesday. “He has energized an enormous [part] of the electorate.’’

Huckabee, suggesting that Obama could make for a tougher Democratic contender in
November, said, “Voters, ultimately, when they are thinking of a leader, are not thinking necessarily of someone who can fix the carburetor, but someone who can drive the car…. That’s where I think Obama has had the distinct advantage.’’

The Tribune's Christi Parsons contributed to this report.