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ELECTION 2008: No one scores Super knockout

McCain on top, but Huckabee wins hit Romney

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

February 6, 2008

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WASHINGTON - With the most wins in the splintered 21- state mega-GOP primary yesterday, John McCain solidified his role as the Republican's presidential front-runner but failed to decisively pull away.

With victories in big-delegate states such as New York and Illinois, McCain put himself in position to win the delegates necessary to clinch the GOP nomination, but he still has a weakened Mitt Romney nipping at his heels and a buoyant Mike Huckabee staying alive in the race.

"We still have a ways to go, but we're much closer to the victory we have worked so hard to achieve and I am confident we will get there," McCain said in Phoenix.

He noted that his mother turns 96 tomorrow and that he is "superstitious" about making predictions, but he said, "I think it's fair to say it has come a little closer to the time when mothers in Arizona might be able to tell their children they can grow up to be president of the United States."

McCain also offered his congratulations to Huckabee and Romney, and promised to work at unifying the party.

Huckabee stunned Romney and many pundits by splitting the conservative vote and routing him in the South, with returns showing he won Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and his home state of Arkansas.

Romney scored victories in his home states of Utah and Massachusetts, and won the North Dakota caucuses. He said he hoped to win more states out West. Still pending was the late-reporting California, with its cache of 170 delegates - the most up for grabs - where McCain and Romney appeared to be in a tight race.

McCain took four winner-take-all states with a total of 151 delegates that were expected to be Rudy Giuliani's: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware. He also won Illinois, Oklahoma and his home state, Arizona.

Romney did not win, but led Huckabee, McCain and Ron Paul in the first round of voting at the West Virginia state GOP convention. In the second round, several McCain backers switched to Huckabee, giving him 51.5 percent of the vote, enough to win. Romney had 47 percent.

Many pundits said the historic national primary yesterday could very well settle the GOP race, and end the agonizing by Republicans unhappy with any of their choices. But Romney and Huckabee appeared after 10 p.m. to say that they would continue their campaigns.

Romney, who had only won his home states of Utah and Massachusetts when he spoke, said his wife told him, "The one thing that is clear tonight is that nothing is clear." He paused. "But I think she's wrong," Romney said at his headquarters in Boston. "One thing is clear tonight. This campaign is going on."

Huckabee was more buoyant and excited, having won three states when he was projected to win only Arkansas. "Over the past few days a lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race," Huckabee said in Little Rock. "Well, you know that it is, and we're in it."

He added, "We're a little further down the road after tonight, but we're still not going to have a nominee."

Results and exit polls last night painted a picture of a still-fractured Republican Party, with conservatives turning largely to Romney or Huckabee, and moderates and national-security voters going for McCain.

But the massive conservative backlash that Romney and some of his supporters had hoped would derail McCain may have slowed him down, but still left him on track.

McCain was hit by some last-minute harsh attacks.

"I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are," said James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, in a statement. "I cannot, and I will not vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience."

McCain will try to quell the conservative revolt in a speech tomorrow to the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting in Washington.

Romney began the day with a loss in West Virginia, whose 18 delegates he had counted on winning, to Mike Huckabee in what the Romney campaign charged was a "backroom deal" by McCain supporters.

Romney did not win, but led Huckabee, McCain and Ron Paul in the first round of voting at the West Virginia state GOP convention. In the second round, several McCain backers switched to Huckabee, giving him 51.5 percent of the vote, enough to win. Romney 47 percent.

Coming up next are contests Saturday in Kansas, Nebraska, Louisiana and Washington state with a total of 126 delegates up for grabs, and next Tuesday's Chesapeake Primary in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. with 119 delegates.

Super Tuesday results

States won as of 11:55 a.m.

REPUBLICANS

McCain 7

Romney 4

Huckabee 4

Paul 0

Undecided 6