msnbc.com
Solid win for Bush in Virginia
Texan deals setback to McCain, also wins in N.D.
By Tom Curry
MSNBC
Feb. 29 ? Texas Gov. George W. Bush scored a solid victory over Arizona Sen. John McCain in Virginia's Republican primary on Tuesday, gaining 56 delegates and picking up new momentum as the GOP rivals hurtle toward elections next Tuesday from Maine to Hawaii. In Washington state, Bush took an early lead in the Republican primary, which was choosing 12 delegates, while McCain was leading in the state's non-binding all-party "beauty contest."
WITH NEARLY ALL Virginia voting precincts reporting, Bush was winning 53 percent, McCain 44 percent and former ambassador Alan Keyes 3 percent.
Since Virginia was a winner-take-all contest, Bush gained all 56 of the state's delegates. Bush also easily won the presidential caucuses in North Dakota, where he captured 14 delegates. With his victories, Bush now has 163 delegates to McCain's 100. To clinch the Republican nomination, 1,034 delegates are required.
VICTORY IN OPEN PRIMARY
The Virginia primary was open to all voters, whether Democratic, Republican or independent. Interviews with voters as they left polling places across the Old Dominion suggested that nearly two-thirds of those voting on Tuesday were Republicans ? and that Bush won about 70 percent of those Republican voters.
As he had done when he won Michigan's primary last week, McCain was able to garner the support of only about one-quarter of self-identified Republicans in Virginia.
"Tonight in an open primary, by a solid majority ... the voters of Virginia rejected the politics of pitting one religion against another," Bush declared in Cincinnati, where he is campaigning for next week's Ohio primary. On Monday, McCain had delivered a scathing criticism of Christian Coalition founder and Bush supporter Pat Robertson, whom he likened to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
As the Virginia votes were tallied, McCain wasted no time congratulating Bush ? and playing down the results.
A SOUTHERN STRATEGY?
"It seems as if he has a Southern strategy here," he said, "doing well in Southern states. We'll look forward to Super Tuesday, when we have a broad section, a cross-section of America voting all on that same day."
McCain is on a two-day bus tour through California, where voters go to the polls next Tuesday.
In Bakersfield, Calif., McCain told supporters, "We're still the underdog. Don't forget it. But we're going to win Tuesday."
But the Virginia results make it clear that McCain now faces an arduous task in winning a majority of the Republican voters in California's winner-take-all primary, the biggest contest of the entire primary season.
Unlike in New Hampshire and Michigan, the sites of McCain's big primary wins, in California only the votes of registered Republicans will be counted in allocating the 162 delegates.
VIRGINIA A MICROCOSM?
Hailing Bush's win, Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, an ally of the Texas governor, told MSNBC's Chris Matthews that "Virginia is not just a classically Southern state at this point. This is a very diverse state. We have the Washington suburbs of northern Virginia, a great information technology community, one of the great maritime communities in Hampton Roads, we have rural areas.... Virginia is almost a microcosm of the United States."
Thus, Gilmore argued, for Bush "to win in Virginia and to win it going away I think says something about the quality of the candidate that Gov. George Bush is."
In Tuesday's other Republican contests, 19 delegates were at stake in North Dakota and 12 in Washington state.
Seattle voter Sarah Porter, who backed Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in 1996, said she had cast her ballot for McCain on Tuesday.
"It is kind of amazing to me that I voted for someone who proudly declares himself a 'Reagan Republican,'" Porter told MSNBC.com.
But she said she admired McCain because "he was willing to come to Washington, the home of Boeing and Microsoft, and speak out against tax shelters for large corporations, and willing to go to Iowa to tell Iowans that he can't support ethanol subsidies."
Asked if she could support McCain if he were to face Democrat Vice President Al Gore in November, Porter said, "I feel like I know a lot about McCain's willingness to defy the current political structure, and that is very attractive, but it would have to be clear to me that McCain is also capable of being constructive, and that his ideas aren't too right-wing."
BRADLEY NEEDS LIFT
Meanwhile, Democrat Bill Bradley hoped to reinvigorate his challenge to Gore with a victory in Washington's non-binding Democratic contest on Tuesday.
Bradley's campaign has struggled ever since Gore defeated him in the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 1. The former New Jersey senator's call for an overhaul of campaign funding laws has largely been overshadowed by McCain's battle with Bush, with reform-minded independents and Democrats forsaking Bradley for McCain.
Bradley has acknowledged he must win several of the primaries and caucuses being held on "Super Tuesday," March 7. California and New York are the biggest prizes that day.
Next Tuesday could be the culminating event in the Republican race as 13 states with 613 delegates go to the polls.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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