Significant Tuesday?

Who has come out looking better from yesterday’s vote in the presidential primaries? Here we give you the lowdown and speculate on what direction the two races will go.

So Super Tuesday is over.

What is it?

24 states holding simultaneous contests to help decide the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations

About 40% of each party’s delegates - who will choose the candidate - are up for grabs
Key states electing large numbers of delegates include California, New York and Illinois

What were the results?

Republicans

Mike Huckabee
5 states, 147 delegates
West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee

John McCain
9 states, 511 delegates
Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Oklahoma, Arizona, Missouri, California

Mitt Romney
7 states, 176 delegates
Massachusetts, Utah, North Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Alaska, Minnesota

1,191 delegates needed for nomination. Totals are latest Super Tuesday projections from AP and do not include delegates from previous primaries

Democrats

Hillary Clinton
8 states, 582 delegates
Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Arizona, California

Barack Obama
13 states, 562 delegates
Georgia, Illinois, Delaware, Alabama, Utah, North Dakota, Kansas, Connecticut, Minnesota, Colorado, Idaho, Alaska, Missouri

2,025 delegates needed for nomination. Totals are latest Super Tuesday projections from AP and do not include delegates from previous primaries

In summary

John McCain moved closer to his party’s presidential nomination after Super Tuesday’s polls, while the Democratic race stayed finely balanced.
Mr McCain won the big states of California and New York, although Mike Huckabee did better than expected.

For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton won in New York and California, but rival Barack Obama also did well by winning in 13 states.

See: http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7229895.stm

So what now?

The Economist on the Republicans:

“Mr McCain saw Georgia, a big south-eastern state, go for Mike Huckabee, the still-battling darling of evangelical Christians. Missouri, a bellwether, looked like it might do the same. He had reason to worry but Mr McCain’s night was saved late, when Missouri finally went his way, and results from California showed that the senator from Arizona had won the biggest state of all. That, along with wins in other big states like New York, New Jersey and Illinois, cemented his position as the commanding Republican front-runner, a status he acknowledged with a broad grin in his post-election speech.

Mr Romney’s main hope was that anti-McCain opinion—strong in many important parts of the party—would gather around him, now that the race has narrowed. But Mr Huckabee foiled that strategy, by racking up a clutch of conservative (largely religious) southern states. This left Mr Romney winning only Massachusetts, of which he was governor, and western and mid-western states that are generally sparsely populated and will send few delegates to the convention. It is now Mr McCain’s race to lose.”

The Economist on the Democrats:

“The furious spin now sure to come from both sides cannot change a simple fact: in the only number that matters—the number of delegates chosen by the primaries—the two candidates are close to deadlock, though Mrs Clinton now has the slimmest of leads. Super Tuesday, long expected to choose a winner finally and decisively for both parties, did no such thing for the Democrats.

Now the primaries come at a steadier pace and the next few favour Mr Obama: Louisiana (he is strong in the South); Nebraska and Washington (he does well in the caucus format that those states use); and the February 12th “Potomac primary” in Maryland and Virginia and the District of Columbia. His fundraising remains strong and he should build a head of steam in the coming weeks. But Mrs Clinton’s institutional advantages remain tremendous, and Texas and Ohio, big states that seem to favour her, vote on March 4th. Over half the states have now voted, and the Democratic race remains anyone’s to win.”

Source: http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10637868&top_story=1

More detailed coverage is available from:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/politics/elections/
http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/results/votes/index.html