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Virginia Boosts Obama, McCain Illinois Senator Takes Local Vote By a Wide Margin

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 09:00 CST

By Warren Fiske and Dale Eisman

The Virginian-Pilot

RICHMOND

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain gained momentum- building victories in Virginia's presidential primaries Tuesday.

The two men also won convincingly in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

With results nearly complete Tuesday night, Illinois Sen. Obama captured about two-thirds of the ballots in Virginia's Democratic primary over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama won the majority of the votes in every city in South Hampton Roads, most by a margin of at least two-thirds.

The Republican race was tighter . McCain did not gain a clear advantage over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee until returns came in from relatively moderate, suburban precincts. McCain won just more than 50 percent of the vote, and Huckabee received most of the rest .

In South Hampton Roads, McCain won the popular vote in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach; Huckabee was the winner in Chesapeake and Suffolk.

Counting Tuesday's contests, Obama has now won eight in a row over Clinton. The victory gave Obama a slight lead over Clinton in the bid to reach the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Eighty-five of the state's 101 delegates were at stake in Tuesday's vote , and as of 12:30 a.m., Obama claimed 49 of them, compared with 26 for Clinton. Eight were not yet allocated, and two of the 85 are unpledged under party rules. There are 16 "super delegates " - mostly party leaders and elected officials who are not bound by primary results.

The Republican primary was a mostly winner-take-all contest. McCain solidified his position as the likely nominee by claiming Virginia's 60 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Three delegates are unpledged.

Obama claimed victory around 9:45 p.m. "Today, the change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac," he told a rally in Madison, Wis. "We won the state of Maryland, we won the commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington, D.C., this movement won't stop until there's change in Washington, D.C."

Clinton, campaigning in Texas, had little to say about Tuesday's results but appeared to sharpen her attacks against Obama.

With results still incomplete, it appeared that more than 30 percent of Virginia's registered voters participated in the primaries. Close to 1 million voted in the Democratic race; more than 460,000 participated in the GOP contest.

Obama won comfortably in 10 of Virginia's 11 congressional districts. Clinton won only in the 9th Congressional District, in the rural southwest corner of the state.

Obama's victory was expected - pre-election surveys had shown him with a comfortable lead - but the dimensions of his victory in a state where Clinton campaigned energetically were nevertheless surprising.

Obama made several appearances in the state Saturday and Sunday, attracting large crowds. He also benefited from an early and strong endorsement by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.

"Today, Virginia voters from across the commonwealth came together around a message of hope and optimism," Kaine said in a written statement. "Today, voters showed confidence in Barack's ability to unite our country and transcend Washington's politics as usual."

McCain spoke to supporters at an Alexandria rally shortly after 10 p.m. and immediately took aim at Obama and the new Democratic front-runner's mantra of "hope."

"Hope is a powerful thing. I can attest to that more than most," he said, recalling his days as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War . But "to encourage a country with only rhetoric ... is not a promise of hope. It's a platitude."

Nearly half of Tuesday's Republican voters were evangelicals, according to a survey conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for television networks and The Associated Press. In the exit poll of 461 Republican voters, Huckabee led McCain 66 percent to 26 percent in that group. Among those calling themselves conservative, Huckabee led 55 percent to 32 percent; moderates preferred McCain, with 64 percent to Huckabee's 30 percent.

McCain, who will be 72 by Inauguration Day 2009 and would be the oldest man to take office as president, owed his edge in the state to voters older than 65, the exit poll also indicated. Among younger voters, Huckabee was ahead 46 percent to 43 percent; those older than 65 preferred McCain by 49 percent to Huckabee's 45 percent.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the third Republican actively campaigning, appeared likely to finish with less than 5 percent of the total vote. But the exit poll indicated he ran relatively well among younger voters, garnering 14 percent of the support among those younger than 30.

Tuesday's voting capped a civil but frantic week of campaigning in a race for the nomination that - for both parties - has been tough to predict .

The Democratic contest focused largely on the candidates' resumes. While Clinton has held elected office for just seven years, she argued that her high-profile advisory role in her husband's White House has given her the experience needed to take on the presidency "from Day 1."

Clinton laced her appearances with policy specifics and seemed to have a detailed position on virtually every subject.

Obama, a U.S. senator for just three years who was a state legislator before that, argued that he has a different kind of experience as a lawyer and community activist.

His speeches sometimes were short on policy particulars, but his soaring rhetoric seemed to rev up young voters, and blacks clearly were excited by the historic possibilities of his candidacy.

Clinton was the most active candidate - from either party - in the Virginia contest. Obama did not hit the state personally until the weekend, but he had television commercials running in every market even before Super Tuesday and his crowds - an estimated 18,000 on Sunday in Virginia Beach, for example - often dwarfed Clinton's.

The Republican race appeared more settled, and McCain campaigned at a relatively leisurely pace. The Arizonan stressed his backing from such GOP insiders as former Gov. Jim Gilmore, former Sen. George Allen and Sen. John Warner.

While a third major GOP hopeful, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, withdrew from the race last week, Huckabee pressed on and scored weekend victories in Kansas and Louisiana, then stormed across Virginia on Sunday and Monday.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, appeared Sunday at a pair of megachurches, including Lynchburg's Thomas Road Baptist, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Huckabee also aired television commercials that identified him as a "Christian leader" and highlighted his support for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. McCain opposes abortion but has suggested that decisions about abortion laws should be left to individual states.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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