McCain Beats Arizona Spread
As expected, John McCain handily won the Arizona GOP presidential primary. Public opinion polls over the last month had predicted the senator would win his home state, but on Tuesday night, McCain scored high marks among even self-described Republicans and conservatives on his way to a 24-point victory.
"We've scored a great victory here in a place that has always mattered most to me, my beautiful Arizona," said McCain at a victory rally in Phoenix, where McCain watched the returns from his home before greeting supporters. The win gives McCain 30 delegates in the winner-take-all primary.
With 100 percent of the precincts counted, McCain had 179,610 votes, or 60 percent, and Bush had 106,626 votes, or 36 percent. Alan Keyes had 4 percent.
He took a majority of the Republican and conservatives vote for the first time in a primary. And he also performed well among women, young people and abortion opponents. The majority of voters also called McCain the candidate of change and the real reformer, perhaps a sign that McCain might win back the hard-fought he lost to Bush in South Carolina. The quality voters liked most about McCain was that he stands up for what he believes.
Bush made his strongest showing among those who described themselves as very conservative. The Texas Governor also won support from voters who placed importance on party allegiance.
| By The Numbers MICHIGAN: ARIZONA: Total delegates to date: Total delegates needed to |
McCain may have received an extra boost from high voter turnout in Arizona, especially among voters casting absentee ballots. In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and 60 percent of the state's voters, requests for mail-in ballots spiked after the New Hampshire primary. Three-fifths of those ballots were returned by last weekend - before McCain's loss to Bush in South Carolina. State elections officials predicted a turnout of 45 percent or even better, compared with 35 percent in 1996.
The senator's status as Arizona's favorite son (he has represented the state for the past 17 years) appeared to soften going into the primary. The state's popular Republican Governor Jane Dee Hull campaigned publicly on Bush's behalf. And McCain failed to win the endorsement of the state's largest newspaper, the Arizona Republic, which has endorsed him in all five of his previous campaigns.
The financially strapped McCain campaign ran no as in Arizona and the candidate didn't campaign in the state before Monday night's packed rally at the University of Arizona in Tucson. In comparison, published reports estimated the Bush campaign spent more than $1million in the state, hoping to embarrass the Senator in his own back yard.
In what amounted to a pre-primary concession, supporters of Bush had asserted that McCain needed a 30-point victory to accomplish a decisive victory in Arizona. It appears that McCain has come close to that mark.
On Tuesday night, Arizona Governor Hull said the loss might slow down the race a bit for her candidate. But she says when Bush loses, "he just comes back stronger and more willing to fight."
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