McCain wins here; Obama still on streak

Sen. John McCain easily won Washington's Republican primary Tuesday and picked up another handful of delegates on his march to seal the party's presidential nomination.

Though ballots were still being tallied, it was clear that McCain had won by a wide margin over his two remaining rivals, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Combined with an easy victory Tuesday in Wisconsin's primary, McCain's win here leaves him just shy of the 1,191 delegates he needs for the nomination.

On the Democratic side, with more than half of the expected vote counted, Sen. Barack Obama held a slim lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. But a win here would be purely symbolic because the state Democratic Party is using the Feb. 9 caucuses — not the primary — to allocate its delegates.

Still, Clinton was doing much better than she did in the caucuses, where she lost to Obama in every county. Clinton was winning in nearly as many counties as Obama on Tuesday night but losing by a wide margin in King County.

About 25 McCain supporters gathered to watch returns at Sport Restaurant & Bar near the Space Needle. The party had barely gotten started before the television networks were declaring McCain the winner in Wisconsin.

"I got here and was putting the balloons up and I thought, 'It's already in the bag,' " said Chris Fidler, the McCain campaign's state co-chairman.

Max Torres, who describes himself as a Democrat, said, "You know, I'm out here to support him. I may not agree with everything he does or everything he votes for, but I agree with his integrity and I think he's going to do well in Washington and Oregon for that reason."

The Republicans are using Tuesday's primary to divvy up nearly half of their delegates. The other half will be allocated according to the GOP's precinct caucuses, which favored McCain by a slim margin.

It was unclear whether turnout for the primary would reach the record 47 percent predicted by Secretary of State Sam Reed.

Turnout was light at many of the polling places in King and Pierce counties, the only two counties that did not rely entirely on mail-in ballots.

Though Reed for weeks had hyped the primary as a historic opportunity for Washington voters, it was largely ignored by the campaigns.

None of the candidates made appearances here in the week leading up to the election.

By comparison, all three of the leading candidates — McCain, Obama and Clinton — campaigned here on the eve of the precinct caucuses.

What the primary lacked in excitement, it made up for in voter anger and confusion.

Many people were apparently not aware that they could vote in the primary even if they'd already taken part in a precinct caucus. Numerous voters were unaware that casting a ballot in the Democratic primary would carry no weight in selecting delegates.

And, as has happened with past presidential primaries, many voters were angry at having to reveal their party affiliation. And this year, the state eliminated the unaffiliated, or independent, ballot.

Voters in this state are not required to register by party. But in order for their votes to be counted in the presidential primary, voters were required to sign an oath stating that they considered themselves either a Republican or Democrat.

Many voters either refused or didn't know they were supposed to do that. In King County, for instance, as many as 25 percent of the ballots cast for a presidential candidate were disqualified because those voters did not sign the party loyalty oath.

"I don't like it. It makes no sense," J.D. Singer, a private business owner, said after voting in Seattle. "We're supposed to vote for the candidate with the best position on the issues, and party has nothing to do with that."

But Merle Wicker declared himself a Republican in order to vote for John McCain. He wasn't sure he understood why the oath mattered, but it was worth it to "cast my vote for the person I think should do the job," he said.

Obama trounced Clinton in Washington's Democratic precinct caucuses, which drew a record 250,000 participants. Still, the turnout was only a small fraction of registered voters. In the caucuses, Obama won nearly 68 percent of the delegates who will move to the next step in the process — the party's legislative district caucuses in April.

While Tuesday's primary will not yield any regular delegates for Obama or Clinton, it could have some sway on the state's undecided "superdelegates."

Superdelegates are party leaders and high-ranking elected Democrats who get an automatic pass to the national convention.

There are 796 superdelegates nationwide, including 17 in Washington, and there is growing speculation that the race could be decided by them.

At last count, six of Washington's superdelegates were supporting Clinton, three were backing Obama and eight had not yet committed to either candidate.

In West Seattle, Teresa Britton caucused for Barack Obama. Since Democratic delegates are determined by the caucuses instead of the primary, she tossed her absentee ballot, thinking, "Why bother?"

"Then I heard about the superdelegates and I thought, 'Well, I want my say,' " Britton said after casting a ballot at the polls Tuesday.

About 20 people turned out for an Obama party at Hector's Restaurant in Kirkland, watching the returns come in and cheering Obama as he spoke in Houston to supporters.

Susan MacCaul, 44, of Kirkland, said she's talking openly with her family and friends for the first time about her political views.

"I never wore a candidate's name on my shirt," said MacCaul, whose white T-shirt read, "got hope?"

Her mother and brother both made their first donations ever to a presidential campaign this year, MacCaul said. And her father, who is politically conservative, wants the United States to exit Iraq and might vote for Obama, she said.

"In a symbolic way, Obama has brought us together," MacCaul said. "I believe he has that same ability to unite everyone, red states and blue states."

Staff reporters Haley Edwards, Diane Brooks, Emily Heffter, Sanjay Bhatt and Amy Roe contributed to this story. Ralph Thomas: 360-943-9882 or rthomas@seattletimes.com