☰

M. Continuo

Democrat Obama wins Virginia contest


    By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama extended hiswinning streak over presidential rival Hillary Clinton onTuesday, decisively winning the state of Virginia to buildmomentum in a hard-fought U.S. nominating race.

    Virginia was one of three battlegrounds in the U.S. capitalregion on Tuesday, along with Maryland and the District ofColumbia, and Obama was projected to roll to another easy winfollowing five consecutive victories over the weekend.

    Republican front-runner John McCain and his last majorchallenger, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, were runningneck-and-neck in very early returns in Virginia as McCain triedto move closer to clinching the party's nomination for theNovember election.

    Voting took place in freezing temperatures, with lightsnowfall or rain in some spots, but local officials saidturnout was strong.

    Polls closed at 7 p.m. EST/2400 GMT in Virginia and at 8p.m. EST/0100 GMT on Wednesday in Maryland and the District.

    Democrat Obama, who would be the first black U.S.president, was favoured in all three contests after easilyrolling to weekend wins in Maine, Louisiana, Nebraska,Washington and the Virgin Islands.

    That edged him past Clinton in the race for pledgeddelegates who formally select a party nominee at a conventionin August.

    All three of Tuesday's contests occurred in fertileterritory for Obama, with large populations of the high-incomevoters who have favoured Obama and the black voters whooverwhelmingly have backed him.

    Exit polls in Virginia on Tuesday indicated Obamaessentially split white voters with Clinton and crushed her9-to-1 among blacks.

    Among Republicans, McCain has built a nearly insurmountablelead in delegates to his party's nominating convention andbecame the likely nominee last week with the withdrawal of histop rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

    But Huckabee captured two of three contests on Saturday asMcCain, an Arizona senator, struggled to win over disgruntledconservatives unhappy with his record on immigration, taxes andother issues.

    Obama has 958 pledged delegates to Clinton's 904, accordingto a count by MSNBC -- well short of the 2,025 needed to clinchthe Democratic nomination. A total of 168 delegates are atstake in Tuesday's voting.

    Clinton, a New York senator and wife of former PresidentBill Clinton, voiced confidence about her campaign's futureeven as she looked past Tuesday's three contests and nextweek's battles in Wisconsin and Hawaii -- all of which favourObama -- to focus on crucial March 4 contests in the big statesof Texas and Ohio.

    Clinton did not wait around for the voting in the capitalregion, heading on Tuesday afternoon to El Paso, Texas, whereshe planned an evening rally. She was scheduled to campaign inTexas on Wednesday and in Ohio on Thursday.

    Obama also headed out in the afternoon, planning an eveningrally in Wisconsin.

    (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles, Jeff Mason,Andrew Stern, Caren Bohan; Editing by Lori Santos)

    (To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visitReuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)