Politics

The Battle Of Seattle

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 1, 2000 / 5:16 PM EST / CBS

Here's a headline that's absolutely true, but you won't see it any newspaper this week: "Gore Gets Clobbered in Washington State Primary."

How about this one, equally true: "McCain Wins Washington Primary."

The votes in Washington weren't counted until late into the night (especially on Eastern time.) So most of the country's newspapers gave the Washington results skimpy, if not misleading coverage.

Here's the real deal: Washington had three primaries on Tuesday, not two.

Primary Number One was for Democrats only. Al Gore won that with a huge 68 percent to 31 percent margin over Bill Bradley

Primary Number Two was for Republicans only. George W. Bush won that with a handy 58 percent to 38 percent spread.

Primary Number Three was for "Unaffiliated" Voters - independents and any one else. These voters could select from a ballot that included Bush, McCain, Gore, and Bradley. Over 345,000 Washington voters participated in this.

And this was the Washington primary that John McCain won by a mile. Here are the raw numbers:

McCain: 141,605
Bush: 77,562
Gore: 70,623
Bradley: 45,636

Al Gore came in third behind both the Republicans. That is not good news for the vice president. Indeed, in a state Bill Clinton carried handily in both 1992 and 1996, it is downright bad news. It is, however, bad news that was completely overshadowed by Bill Bradley's terrible news.

The Republican story is more complicated.

All of these elections were essentially "beauty contests," that is, they did not select delegates. The one exception was the GOP-only primary, which awarded 12 delegates. A caucus will select the bulk of Washington's Republican delegates later this year.

With purebred Republican voters, Bush won. With a mixed bag of voters (like a November general election), McCain won. The papers gave the day to Bush. Really it was a mixed bag. Bush continued to do well with rock-ribbed GOPers; McCain is the apple of the independent eye.

Republican pollster Linda DiVall has put her finger on the key mystery in all this when she wondered why in the world the McCain people were not trumpeting the Washington results, spinning it to their advantage rather than simply ceding the victory to Bush.

This mystery grows deeper when you recall that the crucial California primary is an open, "blanket" primary exactly like the Washington "unaffiliated" primary. DiVall says McCain should use Washington to say, "I'm the best candidate for California." It's complicated, yes, but not that complicated. The stump speech line would read something like: "Sure the Republican establishment came through for Governor Bush in Washington. But in the open election I won, just like I'll win in November, because independents, Democrats and even a few Republicans like me."

The fact that we're not hearing such perfectly passable spin may be another sign of turmoil in McCain's operation - turmoil typical of underdog campaigns running on fmes and adrenaline. McCain's on again, off again participation in a vital California debate is one such sign. So is the departure of one of his top California operatives. So is the now public dissension amongst his aides over his aggressive attack on Christian conservative leaders.

None of this should distract from the fact that Washington continued the fascinating pattern of this Republican primary season. Core Republican voters like Bush; independents and Democrats have a rarely seen affection for a Republican, John McCain. It is just hard to see the Washington state forest through all the trees of this weirdly organized primary.