As Voters Hit the Polls, Candidates Make Last-Minute Appeals
In Day's First Results, Huckabee Wins W. Va.'s Republican Convention

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 4:15 PM

Americans in 24 states began voting for presidential candidates in primaries, caucuses and a state convention today, as Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama jockeyed for front-runner status in a tight race and Republican John McCain looked to distance himself from his closest rival, Mitt Romney.

With Super Tuesday nominating contests taking place from New York to California, the candidates made last-minute appeals for support in the biggest round of primary voting in U.S. political history before scattering to their home states to cast their own ballots and await returns.

In interviews on morning news shows and in new political advertisements, they sought to distinguish themselves from their rivals and make the case for election as the nation's 44th president in November.

The first results of the day came from West Virginia, where former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won the state's Republican convention. After none of the candidates won a majority in a first round of voting, Huckabee emerged with 51.5 percent of the 1,100 ballots cast by delegates in the second round. Romney, the first-round leader, followed with 47.4 percent.

Backers of McCain, who was a distant third in the first round, threw their support to Huckabee in the second round to prevent Romney from winning, the Associated Press reported.

The victory gave Huckabee 18 of the state's 30 delegate votes at the Republican National Convention. Huckabee took those pledged at-large delegates in a winner-take-all format. In addition, nine delegates to the national convention are to be chosen in a Republican primary on May 13, and three party leaders will attend the convention as unpledged delegates.

Romney, Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas all appeared at the convention this morning and addressed delegates before the voting began. Speaking for McCain was former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer .

Clinton, 60, a second-term senator from New York, voted in her state's Democratic primary at an elementary school in Chappaqua this morning and pitched herself as the candidate with the experience to bring about changes in economic and foreign policy.

Obama, 46, who is in his first term as a senator from Illinois, began the day in Massachusetts, one of several closely contested states that he hopes to wrest from Clinton. He portrayed himself on morning shows as the Democrat best able to make a "clean break" with the policies of President Bush and best positioned to defeat the Republican nominee in November. He was scheduled to vote later today in Chicago, where he planned to await primary and caucus results.

McCain and Romney continued to take shots at each other in television appearances and political ads in an increasingly bitter fight over who has the stronger conservative credentials -- a crucial consideration in many of the 21 states that hold GOP nominating events today.

McCain, 71, a four-term senator from Arizona, campaigned in delegate-rich California before a scheduled return to his home state to vote and attend an election-night party. Romney, 60, a former governor of Massachusetts and corporate executive, flew from California to attend West Virginia's Republican convention today before returning to Boston to vote in his state's GOP primary.

"That's pretty fun," Romney remarked to clerks at the ornate, 126-year-old Belmont Town Hall in an upscale suburb of Boston where he cast his ballot. "First time I've voted for myself for president." Also on the ballot were his wife, a son and a daughter-in-law -- candidates for seats on a town committee.

Hoping to survive Super Tuesday but trailing in national polls were Huckabee, 52, and Paul, 72. Turnout was reported heavy in a number of states, including several hit by bad weather. In Tennessee, steady streams of voters went to the polls despite pouring rain across the state. In Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, voters defied rough weather ranging from thunderstorms to tornado watches. In Colorado, party officials forecast record turnout although the Denver area received up to nine inches of snow last night and eastern parts of the state were getting even more.

Unusually heavy voting was also reported in Massachusetts and Georgia, two of the 19 states holding simultaneous Democratic and Republican primaries or caucuses. Three others have solely Democratic contests, while two have Republican-only events.

In Tennessee, pollsters expected Clinton and McCain to win their respective primaries, although state GOP Chairwoman Robin Smith expressed concern about a McCain nomination.

In New York, where high turnout was reported statewide, there were isolated accounts of voting machine malfunctions in Brooklyn, an important battleground for Obama and Clinton.

"There's heavy turnout everywhere," said Jonathan Rosen, New York Democratic Party spokesman. "There's tons of street activity in every major city, and no real problems. . . . Of course, when you're running an election statewide with millions of people using lever machines, there's going to be scattered problems, but nothing is out of the ordinary."

In California, a record 8.9 million voters were estimated to be participating in today's primaries. Among the early voters were the state's political odd couple -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who has endorsed McCain, and first lady Maria Shriver (D), a niece of former president John F. Kennedy and a declared supporter of Obama.

At stake in today's contests for the Democrats were 1,681 pledged delegates to the party's national convention in Denver in late August -- more than half the total of those delegates nationwide. According to the Democratic National Committee, 2,025 delegate votes are needed to win the nomination at its convention. Of 4,049 total delegate votes to be cast, 3,253 will come from the "pledged delegates" that are awarded on a proportional basis to presidential candidates in the primaries and caucuses.

In addition to contests in 22 states, Democrats in the U.S. territory of American Samoa voted today in a territorial caucus, and American expatriates belonging to Democrats Abroad began a week of balloting.

For Republicans, 1,023 pledged delegates in 21 states were up for grabs, with a total of 1,191 delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party's convention in Minneapolis in September.

The Super Tuesday contests loomed as potentially more decisive for the GOP than for the Democrats, with Republican primaries and caucuses in nine states offering a winner-take-all format to the top finisher. Democratic Party rules bar winner-take-all contests, making it unlikely that either candidate could score a knockout today.

Heading into today's contests, Clinton was leading Obama 261 to 196 in total pledged and unpledged delegates, according to a tally by the Associated Press. McCain had 102 delegates, Romney had 93 and Huckabee 43, the AP reported.

In an interview on the CBS "Early Show" this morning, Obama said Clinton "has to be the prohibitive favorite going in, given her name recognition, but we've been steadily chipping away. . . ."

The Illinois senator said on NBC's "Today" show: "I don't think that today's going to end up being decisive, but I think it'll give you a good sense of who's connecting with the voters' concerns right now." He said polls showed tightening races in California, Massachusetts and Connecticut, where Clinton recently held double-digit leads.

"So the fact that we've made so much progress, I think, indicates that we've got the right message," he said. But in any case, "I suspect that we're probably going to see a split decision tonight." He dismissed concerns that the Republicans could benefit from a protracted battle between him and Clinton and said he was encouraged that in the first four nominating contests, Democrats "doubled their turnout from four years ago."

"And when I'm the nominee, I think, whether I'm going up against John McCain or Mitt Romney, they're going to have to defend George Bush's failed economic policies and failed foreign policy," Obama said. "And I will represent a clean break, taking the country in a new direction. That's a debate that I'm happy to have."

Clinton declined to specify any particular state that she needs to win today, telling an "Early Show" interviewer with a laugh, "I want as many as I can get."

She said in summing up her final pitch to voters: "Well, with two wars abroad and a recession looming, people need a president who is tested and ready on Day One to be the commander in chief, to turn the economy around and make it work for middle-class people, and to actually win in November. And I believe I offer all of that to voters."

She also said that among the remaining candidates, she has the only plan "that can actually move us toward universal health care." She touted her plans to address the nation's mortgage crisis, saying, "I have the experience to make the changes that we need."

McCain accused Romney on CBS of pouring "$10 million or so" into negative ads in California and said voters are figuring out that his rival "had a terrible record" as Massachusetts governor and is "not good on national security."

"My job is to convince everybody that . . . I'm the conservative candidate, I've got the record, and I can lead this nation in the struggle against radical Islamic extremism," he said on NBC's "Today" show. "I've got the knowledge, the background and the judgment."

The Arizona senator also defended himself against charges that he is hot-tempered and has alienated a number of GOP Senate colleagues, including one who called him "rough in the sandbox" and another who described him as "erratic" and "hot-headed." He said he has "very close relationships" with a number of current and former senators.

"But, look, do I get angry sometimes?" McCain asked rhetorically. "Should I get angry when there's a guy named [Jack] Abramoff that's ripping off Native American tribes of millions of dollars? Should I get angry when I see this pork-barrel spending that goes on? Should I get angry on behalf of my constituents when I see a $6 million rip-off on an airplane? Of course."

He continued: "I've never been elected Miss Congeniality because I've fought against these practices which have caused the American people to hold us in such low esteem."

Romney replied on CBS that he has run "only positive ads in California" and spent only $1.5 million on them. He charged that McCain is the one waging a negative campaign, and he said he was encouraged by his progress in California, where polls show him leading McCain.

"I think you had a lot of conservative voices on talk radio and print voices say: 'Look, we just can't have the party led by John McCain, who took us in such a sharp left turn. We've got to have a conservative, and Mitt Romney's the guy.' "

He added that if he were to win California, "that would say that the conservatives in our party are not at all comfortable with Senator McCain leading us."

In Charleston, W.Va., Romney suggested after attending the GOP state convention that that he would resist pressure to drop out of the race if McCain did better today in the national delegate count. Romney also sought to clarify comments interpreted as disparaging to unsuccessful 1996 GOP presidential nominee Robert J. Dole, who has defended McCain against conservative talk-show critics.

Romney said on the Fox News Channel yesterday that Dole was "probably the last person" he would want writing a letter to defend him. "I think there are a lot of folks who tend to think that maybe John McCain's race is a bit like Bob Dole's race. That it's the guy who's next in line, the inevitable choice." McCain accused Romney of "attacking a genuine American hero" and called on him to apologize.

Staff writers Rick Weiss, Glenn Kessler, Krissah Williams, Lyndsey Layton, Josh White, Spencer S. Hsu, Robert Barnes and Darryl Fears contributed to this report.