Washington - Senator John McCain staked a clear lead for the
Republican presidential nomination, sweeping delegates in the big
prizes of California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York in Tuesday's
super primary results.
But Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, vying to become the
first woman and African-American respectively in the presidency, came
out of the night nearly in a dead heat, meaning the Democratic Party
fell short of its hope of having one strong candidate emerge who
could spend the coming nine months taking on the Republicans in the
battle to reclaim the White House in November.
McCain, 71, was the clear victor by percentage in nine of 21
Republican state contests. While the state victories give his
campaign momentum, the bottom line is the number of delegates he now
has to the Republican nominating convention in September in St Paul,
Minnesota.
According to preliminary projections by CNN, he picked up 503
delegates Tuesday night for a total of 615 since early January. To
win the nomination, he needs 1,191 delegates, or half the total.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 60, took seven smaller
states, leaving him with only 268 Republican delegate votes.
The big surprise was former Former Arkansas governor Mike
Huckabee, 52, a southerner and one-time Baptist minister who swept
all five southern states up for grabs on Tuesday, including Georgia
and Tennessee.
In Missouri, Huckabee lagged behind McCain by only 1 percentage
point, leaving him with 169 Republican delegate votes according to
CNN and making him a potentially formidable force at the convention
and in the general elections.
The tallies are not official, and must be formally approved by the
national party under varying state party rules.
On the Democratic side, Obama, 46, claimed top numbers in 13
states, many of them the less-populated Midwest states, adding 562
delegate votes to his quiver and bringing his unofficial delegate
total to 732 since state voting began in January, CNN calculated.
While Clinton, 60, took only eight of 22 states, they included the
large prizes of California, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts,
adding 582 delegate votes to bring her unofficial delegate total to
825 heading into the Democratic convention in August in Denver,
Colorado.
To win the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs half the
total, or 2,025 delegates.
Republicans use winner-take-all rules in most cases, while the
Democrats carefully apportion delegate votes according to percentages
received in primary voting.
With two evenly matched candidates like Obama and Clinton, the
Democratic contest could continue until the last primary in early
June and even into the convention, when uncommitted super delegates
which include party and elected officials - and former president Bill
Clinton, Hillary Clinton's husband - could break any tie.
USA
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