Kerry Prevails in 5 States; Edwards Takes S. Carolina

Sen. John F. Kerry cemented his position as the Democratic frontrunner by rolling to victories Tuesday in Missouri, Arizona and three other states, winning the bulk of delegates in the biggest day of presidential balloting so far.

Sen. John Edwards captured South Carolina, keeping his White House hopes alive, and retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark eked out a win in Oklahoma to sustain his struggling campaign.

Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democrat’s 2000 vice presidential nominee, quit the race after going 0 for 9 in the primary season and finishing far back in all seven states voting Tuesday.

He vowed to support the party’s nominee even as he made one last pitch for his centrist platform.

“In this campaign, I may not have shouted the loudest, but I am proud that I took the toughest positions in support of what I believe is right for our great country, even when it wasn’t popular,” said Lieberman, whose strong support for the war in Iraq put him out of step with many fellow Democrats.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a frontrunner in polls a month ago, finished no better than third in any of the seven states and was fighting to keep his candidacy alive until a make-or-break test in Wisconsin on Feb. 17.

Though Kerry fell short of the sweep he had hoped for, the result of Tuesday’s balloting was to boost his already strong momentum and significantly increase his count of delegates to the Democratic nominating convention this summer.

Speaking Tuesday night to supporters in a packed hotel ballroom in downtown Seattle, the Massachusetts lawmaker referred to his home team’s Super Bowl victory Sunday night.

“For the second time in a few days, a New England patriot has won on the road. Now we will carry this campaign and the cause of a stronger, fairer, more prosperous America to every part of America,” Kerry said. “We will take nothing for granted.”

“We will compete everywhere, and in November, with your help, we will defeat George W. Bush.”

In early January, Kerry stopped campaigning everywhere but Iowa in a high-risk strategy that paid off when he won the caucuses in that state and, a week later, the leadoff primary in New Hampshire.

His victories translated into an immediate bounce in poll numbers and donations across the country, encouraging Kerry to contest all seven states holding primaries and caucuses Tuesday while his rivals ran more narrowly focused campaigns.

“When you’re running for president of the United States, I think you have to run nationally; I don’t think you can cherry-pick,” Kerry told reporters aboard his chartered Boeing 737 as he flew to Spokane, Wash., from Phoenix.

There were 269 delegates up for grabs, more than one-tenth of the number needed to win the Democratic nomination, with Missouri, Arizona, Delaware, North Dakota and New Mexico accounting for 184 of the day’s total. Of the pledged delegates at stake Tuesday, Kerry was winning 124, Edwards 61, Clark 46, Dean five and Al Sharpton one, with 32 yet to be allocated pending final results.

For Edwards, Tuesday’s goal was more basic than Kerry’s: survival.

The senator from North Carolina had said for months he needed to win South Carolina, where he was born, to continue his presidential campaign.

By doing so, Edwards left himself well-positioned for the next two Southern primaries, in Virginia and Tennessee on Feb. 10. The greater challenge will be winning outside his native South.

“Tonight, we stand at a crossroads,” an exuberant Edwards told a crowd of several hundred supporters at a nightclub in downtown Columbia, S.C. “If the American people give me a shot at George Bush next November, next November I will give them back the White House.”

Interviews with voters as they left the polls in Oklahoma, Arizona and South Carolina showed different strengths -- and potential vulnerabilities -- for the top finishers.

Kerry, a member of the U.S. Senate for 19 years, won in several states among voters who wanted a candidate with experience, as well as voters who put electability at their top of their priority list.

In South Carolina, Edwards’ victory was powered by his strength among the state’s more conservative and older voters. He also won among voters who were most concerned about the economy and those who said they most valued a candidate who cared about people like them.

Blacks made up about 45% of the South Carolina electorate in Tuesday’s primary, the largest minority turnout in any state that has voted so far.

Edwards and Kerry ran about even among African Americans, each winning about a third of their vote in South Carolina.

The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York, the sole black candidate in the field, won about 1 in 5 African American votes, despite his intensive efforts in the state.

As Tuesday’s balloting was underway, Kerry was already looking ahead to Saturday’s next round of voting in Washington state and Michigan. Maine will vote on Sunday.

Even as the victories roll up, he insisted, he would continue to campaign “in high cylinder, high gear.”

“We’re not playing cautious here,” he told reporters. “We’re fighting to win this race.”

In a further bonus for his campaign, Kerry was expected today to win the endorsement of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union.

At the same time, he was looking ahead to the general election.

“I’m going to take the fight right to George Bush. I have every day, and I will continue to. We have very different visions of where this country ought to be going and how we get there.... We’re going to have a great debate.”

He dismissed Republican efforts to depict him as an out-of-step Northeastern liberal.

“If all they’re going to do is throw labels around, and play the old game of broad- brush politics,” Kerry said, “I think they’re going to have a problem.”

Dean also was looking beyond Tuesday’s discouraging results. During a town hall meeting in Spokane, he never directly mentioned the balloting underway, instead playing up the import of Saturday’s vote.

Addressing a crowd of 800 supporters Tuesday night at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater, Dean acknowledged, “We’re going to have a tough night tonight. But you know what? ... We’re going to keep going and going and going and going and going, just like the Energizer bunny.”

Throughout the day, Dean kept up his attacks on Kerry, repeatedly alluding to him as a captive of special-interest groups and a Washington insider who had accomplished little in his nearly 20 years in the U.S. Senate.

“You have a very, very stark choice before you, between somebody who’s actually delivered healthcare and balanced budgets and somebody who’s a perfectly fine person who hasn’t ever delivered any healthcare,” Dean said.

After a long night’s count, Clark, standing before a red, white and blue banner, addressed supporters in Oklahoma City. “As an old soldier from Arkansas,” he said, “ I just couldn’t be prouder of your support in the first election I’ve ever won.”

“Today, across the country, Democrats went to the polls, and tonight the people have spoken, and the message they sent couldn’t be clearer: America wants a higher standard of leadership in Washington.”

Earlier Tuesday, Clark’s political future appeared uncertain. Word circulated that he planned to return to his hometown of Little Rock, Ark., if he failed to win anywhere, a possible first step toward quitting the race.

But Clark’s victory came at no small expense. He spent $11 million on TV ads alone in his effort to emerge as the sole alternative to Kerry.

Instead, there will be at least three candidates -- Edwards and Dean, as well as Clark -- chasing after Kerry for at least the next few days.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Results from the contests, state by state

Arizona

Kerry 42.6%

Clark 26.8%

Dean 13.9%

Edwards 7%

Lieberman 6.5%

Kucinich 1.6%

Sharpton 0.5%

94% reporting

*

Delaware

Kerry 50.5%

Lieberman 11.1%

Edwards 11%

Dean 10.4%

Clark 9.5%

Sharpton 5.7%

Kucinich 1%

100% reporting

*

Missouri

Kerry 50.6%

Edwards 24.7%

Dean 8.7%

Clark 4.4%

Lieberman 3.5%

Sharpton 3.4%

Kucinich 1.2%

95% reporting

*

New Mexico

Kerry 37.7%

Clark 19%

Dean 15.4%

Edwards 10.3%

Kucinich 4.8%

Lieberman 2.4%

Sharpton 0%

99% reporting

*

North Dakota

Kerry 50.6%

Clark 23.8%

Dean 11.7%

Edwards 9.8%

Kucinich 2.9%

Lieberman 0.9%

Sharpton 0.3%

100% reporting

*

Oklahoma

Clark 29.9%

Edwards 29.5%

Kerry 26.8%

Lieberman 6.5%

Dean 4.2%

Sharpton 1.3%

Kucinich 0.8%

100% reporting

*

South Carolina

Edwards 45.3%

Kerry 29.8%

Sharpton 9.7%

Clark 7.2%

Dean 4.7%

Lieberman 2.4%

Kucinich 0.5%

93% reporting

Figures do not total 100% because fringe candidates and those who left the race are not listed.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Delegate tally

*--* Total of pledged Candidate delegates won* John F. Kerry 124 John Edwards 61 Wesley K. Clark 46 Howard Dean 5 Al Sharpton 1

*--*

*Pledged delegates are required to support their designated candidate at the national convention.

Sources: Associated Press

Times staff writers Nick Anderson, Matea Gold and Eric Slater and Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt contributed to this report.