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McCain confident of wins in upcoming races

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

February 12, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Confident of sweeping today's Potomac Primary, John McCain yesterday downplayed doubts arising from conservative defections and Mike Huckabee's persistent, and increasingly pointed, campaign.

Noting that he is far ahead in delegates needed to win the GOP nomination and that he continues to pick up endorsements of key GOP figures, McCain congratulated Huckabee for winning Saturday's Kansas caucus and Louisiana preference primary.

"We have close to 800 delegates. Last time I checked, Governor Huckabee had very few, so I think I'm happy with the situation I'm in," McCain said at a news conference here.

McCain even shrugged off Huckabee's challenge of his win in Saturday's Washington state caucus, saying Huckabee has a right to protest it. But McCain added, "I think it's pretty clear that we won."

McCain continues to solidify support among the Republican establishment with endorsements from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison as well as the backing of Gary Bauer, an anti-abortion activist and onetime presidential candidate.

Asked why so many Republicans are voting for Huckabee, McCain laughed and said, "Because they like him." He added, "I never expected a unanimous vote, although I would certainly like to have that."

McCain said he did not do well in caucuses because they require extensive organization and cost money he hasn't had.

"We'll continue to work hard, particularly now that we've got enough funds to organize," McCain said.

Huckabee, meanwhile, sharpened his attacks on McCain.

Without mentioning names, Huckabee, in Virginia Beach, Va., lumped McCain, a four-term senator, in with Democratic presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama as Washington insiders.

"What has the Senate done lately?" Huckabee asked. "An immigration bill," he answered, which caused people to burn up the phone lines with protests.

Bob Ehrlich, the former Republican governor of Maryland, admitted that McCain's immigration bill is his biggest vulnerability among voters.

Ehrlich introduced McCain at the news conference here, close to the Naval Academy, which McCain attended in the 1950s and McCain's son attends now.

Looking forward to today's primaries, McCain said, "I hope that we'll do well here. I have great confidence that we will, both here and in Virginia and in the District of Columbia."

That confidence arises out of local polls showing him with backing from more than 50 percent of Republicans in both Maryland and Virginia, putting him in a position to pick up most, if not all, of the 119 delegates at stake in today's vote.

McCain can win outright 63 delegates in Virginia and 19 in Washington, which hold winner-take-all primaries.

He can also pick up as many as 37 delegates in Maryland, which gives 13 to the statewide winner and allots the other 24 to winners of each of the state's eight congressional districts.

McCain has 729 of the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch. Huckabee has 241 and Mitt Romney, who suspended his campaign, still has 288, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, a new AP poll finds that Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 42 percent in a presidential matchup, while Clinton edges McCain 46 percent to 45 percent. But both matchups fall within the plus-or-minus 3.1 point margin of error in the survey, which polled 1,029 people by telephone from Feb. 7 to 10.