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West Virginia win propels Clinton to stay in race

BY GLENN THRUSH | glenn.thrush@newsday.com

May 14, 2008

Democratic presidential hopeful New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton takes the stage at her primary election night celebration at the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, WV. Clinton cruised to a crushing win over Barack Obama in West Virginia's primary. (Getty Images Photo / May 14, 2008)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Hillary Rodham Clinton cited her lopsided 2-to-1 win in West Virginia last night as proof she should fight on for the next three weeks - but her celebration will be cut short when she's grilled today by supporters eager to know her rationale for remaining in the race.

Clinton defeated Barack Obama, who didn't seriously contest the state, by 67 to 26 percent with 95 percent of the vote counted.

"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," said Clinton, in a victory speech here that doubled as a plea to the 200-odd undecided superdelegates who still hold the fate of the Democratic nomination.

"I deeply admire Senator Obama but I believe our case is stronger. . . . The race for the White House comes down to the swing states and I am winning the swing states," she said, to chants of "It's not over!" by several hundred supporters in the Charleston Civic Center. "You know I never give up - I keep coming back - I'll stand with you as long as you stand with me. . . . This race isn't over yet."

The win, which is likely to net Clinton about a half-dozen delegates, won't fundamentally change the former first lady's uphill battle - and can't compensate for the 26 superdelegates who declared for Obama in the past week. The two face off again next Tuesday in Oregon, which is tilting toward Obama, and Kentucky, where Clinton is heavily favored.

Obama's camp dismissed the West Virginia loss as a minor stumble on their inexorable march to the nomination, trumpeting four new superdelegate endorsements yesterday, including that of former Democratic National Committee chairman Roy Romer. "This race, I believe, is over," Romer said.

Clinton's campaign says the win proves her drawing power with blue-collar voters and keeps alive hopes she can win more popular votes than Obama when balloting ends on June 3. As expected, Clinton dominated with the state's working-class whites, winning three-quarters of white voters with no college degree, according to exit polls.

In a warning to Democrats, Clinton hinted at Obama's weakness in a general election with those voters, saying the primaries aren't "an abstract exercise."

As the former first lady addressed her admirers, Bill Clinton was stumping in Oregon while daughter Chelsea was marching behind a drum and whistle band in San Juan, Puerto Rico, ahead of its June 1 primary.

Yet even on a day of triumph, Hillary Clinton was forced to shore up support with a top labor supporter, meeting quietly in Washington with worried AFSCME head Gerald McEntee, who wanted her to explain her plan going forward, according to people close to both.

Clinton and her staff will face more of the same today at her Washington mansion during a series of meetings with donors and congressional superdelegates eager to learn her plans for campaigning's final three weeks.

"There's 40 to 45 of us coming down [from New York] and I think it will be substantive question-and-answer session full of candor," said Clinton campaign finance chairman Alan Patricof. "It's getting harder to raise money," Patricof said about fundraising for Clinton. "The number of people you can go after is shrinking after 17 months."

A DNC member who raises money for Clinton put it more bluntly: "Her money people are starting to say 'fold it' and she's needs to get them back in line."

The campaign is at least $20 million in debt, half of it to the candidate herself, and fundraising has flagged since her disappointing showing in North Carolina and Indiana a week ago.

Clinton and Obama shook hands and briefly exchanged pleasantries on the Senate floor yesterday, but the Illinois senator couldn't reach Clinton on the phone last night when he tried to congratulate her and had to leave a message, a spokesman said.

In her victory address, the former first lady took pains to downplay worries of a bitter, protracted campaign against Obama, saying, "We have always stood together on what is most important."