Spotlight: Washington state

By their presence, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton anointed Washington state as their prime battleground in a trio of Democratic presidential contests today.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee hunted for delegates in three states too, keeping a vigorous pace despite the sense that the Republican race is essentially over, with McCain firmly on the road to the nomination.

“We’re doing very well,” McCain told about 400 supporters in a Seattle ballroom Friday night, “but it’s not over.”

Washington is holding caucuses and Louisiana a primary today for each party; Nebraska is holding Democratic caucuses, and Kansas is weighing in on the Republicans. Maine holds Democratic caucuses Sunday.

Both Democrats visited Washington, the richest weekend prize with 78 delegates, and the campaign was as lively as it was short.

Obama drew nearly 20,000 to a raucous Seattle arena Friday, a day after 10,000 packed the Illinois senator’s rally in strongly Republican Nebraska -- a state Clinton didn’t visit, sending daughter Chelsea instead.

Obama won the endorsement Friday of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. Both candidates had courted her -- Obama speaking with her four times.

“He is leading us toward a positive feeling of hope in our country, and I love seeing that happen,” Gregoire said.

Washington’s senators both back Clinton.

Sen. Maria Cantwell introduced the New York senator to a crowd in Spokane and likened her to four-time Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race winner Susan Butcher and the Native American Sacagawea, who served as a guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s.

“We like women pioneers here in the Northwest,” Cantwell said.

“Hillary is here to listen, to answer questions and to make history, and Washington state is here to help her do that.”

At the Obama rally, Lisa Jones, 32, said she liked his freshness and approach. “I feel about him the way I did about Bill Clinton in 1992,” she said.

“I like Hillary, but she doesn’t make my heart skip like Obama.”