John McCain was yesterday working towards total domination of the Republican primary contests, hoping to make Super Tuesday decisive in his campaign for the party’s nomination.
The senator from Arizona enters today’s race with momentum, high profile endorsements, and a poll lead in every state voting today except for Massachusetts – where his main rival, Mitt Romney, served a single term as governor.
McCain seemed determined to force Romney off the map even in that state, yesterday adding an appearance in Boston to his tour of the north-east. He used the stop to reaffirm his conservative credentials, which has emerged as his main weak point in a campaign for the conservative bedrock of the Republican party.
He planned to spend the evening rush hour yesterday meeting commuters at New York’s Grand Central station.
Romney’s strategy yesterday appeared focused on heightening conservative doubts about McCain’s independent streak. While McCain has strong cross-over appeal to independent voters, he has been under attack from rightwing chat show hosts and Republican leaders for his rejection of punitive laws on illegal immigration and his support for campaign finance reform and global warming.
However, Romney’s hopes of stopping McCain today were hampered by the patchwork of rules which govern the way the 1,023 delegates will be awarded in the 21 separate Republican contests.
McCain has a double-digit lead in states such as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, which award delegates on a winner-takes-all basis. He also has more delegates going into today’s race – 93 compared with 77 for Romney.
Romney was hoping to offset McCain’s advantage in delegate-rich California where polls suggest he is making recent inroads. The primary rules also favor Romney because delegates are awarded on a proportional basis. After stops in Tennessee, Georgia, and Oklahoma yesterday his campaign hurriedly organized a rally in Long Beach, California, last night.
Romney has been hemmed in by Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who is splitting the vote of social conservatives in southern states and across the midwest. The gap between McCain and Romney is much narrower in states such as Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Missouri, which suggests the former Massachusetts governor could come out ahead if Huckabee were not in the equation.
Romney was unwilling to contemplate surrender yesterday, making a swing through the southern states to the Pacific coast in an attempt to heighten conservative unease at McCain’s independent streak. However, Romney, who has kept his campaign afloat by injecting millions from his personal fortune, was already being pressed yesterday whether he would continue his candidacy beyond today.
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