Mccain, Obama Add to Leads; Dems Focus on Texas, Ohio
By DAVID ESPO
By David Espo
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Barack Obama won the Wisconsin primary Tuesday night, his ninth straight triumph over a fading Hillary Rodham Clinton in their struggle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Obama cut deeply into Clinton’s political bedrock, splitting the support of white women almost evenly with the former first lady and running well among working-class voters in a blue-collar battleground, according to polling place interviews.
The economy and trade were key issues in the race, and seven in 10 voters said that international trade has resulted in lost jobs in Wisconsin. Fewer than one in five said trade has created more jobs than it has lost.
John McCain, who raised nearly $12 million in January, won the Republican primaries in Wisconsin and Washington state. The Arizona senator dispatched former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, edging closer to the 1,191 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination at the party convention in St. Paul, Minn., in the summer.
The Associated Press made its calls based on surveys of voters as they left the polls.
In a scarcely veiled attack on Obama, the Republican nominee-in- waiting said, “I will fight every moment of every day in this campaign to make sure that Americans are not deceived by an eloquent but empty call for change.”
In the Washington state primary Tuesday, 19 Republican delegates were at stake.
In Wisconsin, independents cast about one-quarter of the ballots in the race between Obama and Clinton, and roughly 15 percent of the electorate were first-time voters, the survey said. Obama has run strongly among independents in earlier primaries and among younger voters, and the Illinois senator cited their support as evidence that he would make a stronger general election candidate in the fall.
Wisconsin offered 74 Democratic national convention delegates. There were 20 delegates at stake in Democratic caucuses in Hawaii, where Obama spent part of his youth.
Obama began the night with 1,281 delegates in the AP count, and Clinton with 1,218. It will take 2,025 to win the nomination at the party’s national convention in Denver.
Obama began the evening with eight straight primary and caucus victories, a run that has propelled him past Clinton in the overall delegate race and enabled him to chip away at the New York senator’s advantage among elected officials who will have convention votes as superdelegates.
The Democrats’ focus on trade was certain to intensify, with primaries in Ohio in two weeks and in Pennsylvania on April 22.
Obama’s campaign has already distributed mass mailings critical of Clinton on the issue in Ohio. “Bad trade deals like NAFTA hit Ohio harder than most states. Only Barack Obama consistently opposed NAFTA,” it said.
Obama was in Texas, which has primaries and caucuses on March 4, and Clinton was in Ohio as the votes were counted in Wisconsin.
“Both Sen. Obama and I would make history,” Clinton said in remarks prepared for delivery at a rally in Youngstown. “But only one of us is ready on Day 1 to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy, and ready to defeat the Republicans.
“Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice.”
Clinton’s aides initially signaled she would virtually concede Wisconsin, and she spent less time in the state than Obama. Even so, she ran a television ad that accused her rival of ducking a debate and added that she had the only health care plan that would cover all Americans and the only economic plan to stop home foreclosures. “Maybe he’d prefer to give speeches than have to answer questions,” the commercial said.
Obama countered with an ad saying his health plan would cover more people.
The campaign grew increasingly testy over the weekend, when Clinton’s aides accused Obama of plagiarism for delivering a speech that included words that had first been uttered by Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts governor and a friend of Obama’s.
“I really don’t think this is too big of a deal,” Obama said .
Even before the votes were tallied in one state, the campaigners were looking ahead.
Some of Clinton’s backers have said the one-time front-runner cannot afford to lose either Texas or Ohio. Already, she and Obama have begun advertising in Texas, with 228 delegates, and Ohio, with 161 .
Pennsylvania, with 188 Democratic delegates, will be one of the last big primaries.
In the Republican race, McCain’s Wisconsin victory came with at least 13 of the 24 delegates at stake.
the races so far
n
Delegates needed to win Democratic nomination: 2,025. Committed before Tuesday: Obama 1,281, Clinton 1,218. At stake in Wisconsin, 74 delegates. At stake in Hawaii caucuses, 20.
n
Delegates needed to win Republican nomination: 1,191. Committed before Tuesday: McCain, 908; Huckabee, 245. At stake in Wisconsin, 24. At stake in Washington primary, 19. Tuesday, March 4
Democrats 444 delegates at stake Ohio primary, 161 Rhode Island primary, 32 Texas primary, 228 Vermont primary, 23
GOP 265 delegates at stake Ohio primary, 88 Rhode Island primary, 20 Texas primary, 140 Vermont primary, 17
Source: The New York Times
(c) 2008 Virginian – Pilot. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.