Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry rolled up big victories and a pile of delegates in five states Tuesday night, while rivals John Edwards and Wesley Clark kept their candidacies alive with singular triumphs in a dramatic cross-country contest.
Edwards easily won his native South Carolina and Clark, a retired Army general from Arkansas, eked out victory in neighboring Oklahoma.
Howard Dean earned no wins and perhaps no delegates, his candidacy in peril. Joe Lieberman was shut out, too, and dropped out of the race.
”It’s a huge night,” Kerry told The Associated Press, even as rivals denied him a coveted sweep.
Racking up victories in Missouri, Arizona, North Dakota, New Mexico and Delaware, Kerry suggested that his rivals were regional candidates.
”I compliment John Edwards, but I think you have to run a national campaign, and I think that’s what we’ve shown tonight,” the four-term Massachusetts senator said. ”You can’t cherry-pick the presidency.”
With Iowa and New Hampshire already in his pocket, Kerry boasts a record of 7-2 in primary season contests, the undisputed front-runner who had a chance to put two major rivals away but barely failed.
An AP analysis showed Kerry winning 65 pledged delegates, Edwards 43, Clark five and Al Sharpton one, with 155 yet to be allocated. Kerry’s wins in Missouri and Arizona were the night’s biggest prizes, with 129 delegates – nearly half of the 269 at stake.
Tuesday’s results pushed Kerry close to 200 delegates out of 2,162 needed for the nomination, including the superdelegates of lawmakers and party traditionalists. Dean trailed by nearly 70, Edwards by nearly 100.
Democrats award delegates based on a candidates’ showing in congressional districts, giving Kerry’s rivals a chance to grab a few delegates even in contests they lost.
In nearly every region of the nation, the most diverse group of Democrats yet to cast votes this primary season said they had a singular priority: Defeat President Bush this fall.
”I don’t care who wins the Democratic primary,” said Judy Donovan of Tucson, Ariz. ”I’d get my dog to run. I’m not kidding. I would get Mickey Mouse in there. Anybody but Bush.”
In state after state, exit polls showed Kerry dominated among voters who want a candidate with experience or who could beat Bush.
Edwards had said he must win South Carolina, and he did by dominating among voters who said they most value a candidate who cares about people like them.
”It’s very easy to lay out the map to get us to the nomination,” Edwards told the AP, drawing a line from Michigan on Saturday to Virginia and Tennessee next Tuesday.
To the roar of his supporters, Edwards declared, ”The politics of lifting people up beats the politics of tearing people down.”
As the votes were being counted in Oklahoma, Clark mused about the future of his candidacy. ”This could be over,” he told reporters. Hours later, he had won Oklaho and finished second in Arizona and New Mexico – enough to fight another day.
Edwards narrowly lost to Clark in Oklahoma, missing a chance to show his presidential mettle outside the South and emerge as Kerry’s chief rival.
Dean saved his money for a last stand in Wisconsin on Feb. 17, a long-shot strategy that some of his own advisers questioned.
”We’re going to have a tough night,” Dean told supporters as he promised to keep ”going and going and going and going – just like the Energizer bunny.”
Said Steve Murphy, who ran Rep. Dick Gephardt’s campaign: ”Howard Dean is done.” The list of ex-candidates grows: Florida Sen. Bob Graham dropped out first, then Carol Moseley Braun, Gephardt and Lieberman.
”Today the voters have rendered their verdict and I accept it,” Lieberman said.
Kerry, who just six weeks ago was written off as a candidate, reshaped the race with victories in Iowa and New Hampshire while Dean’s candidacy cratered.