2008 Woodie Awards
Presidential Competition Fires up with Primaries Around the Nation
Justin Lyman
Issue date: 2/5/04 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
A journey that started several months ago continues on with fewer and fewer possible outcomes for the six Democratic nominees left running. Before Iowa former Senator Carol Moseley Braun dropped out endorsing Howard Dean. Then after a poor showing in Iowa, Sen. Dick Gephardt threw in the towel and has yet to endorse anyone in the current race.
As of Tuesday, February 3, 2004 one more potential candidate backed out with dignity intact. Senator Joe Lieberman after poor projections tonight decided it was time to go.
Tuesday was the first major challenge for the 2,161 delegates that will determine who will be the democratic nominee. There were primaries in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Dakota, Delaware, and Missouri. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been officially declared the winner in New Mexico, Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, and North Dakota. The Junior Senator from South Carolina, John Edwards has that state locked up. The only race that has no clear winner right now is Oklahoma. Oklahoma has two competitors almost in a dead heat, separated by less than 1500 votes.
One important thing to remember is that these are not winner-take-all elections. The delegates are divvied out based on the percentage of votes they receives. The lowest amount one can receive and still get delegates is 15%; this does not bode well for some of the candidates in second and third place. The candidate to come out of Tuesday with the most delegates is Kerry; however, he will not receive as much as predicted by many political analysts all week.
If the percentages stay as they are with less than 5% left to report at this late stage, he will gain about 96 of the 260 delegates available now. This would bring his total to 228 pledged delegates.
Dean is a distant 2nd with just a little more than half of the delegates at 118, followed closely by Edwards and Wesley Clark with 100 and 78 respectively. Oklahoma is not counted in these totals because of the closeness of the race at this time.
Where do they go from here? It is possible that we will see other candidates drop out as poor showings hurt campaign contributions. One candidate has almost exhausted all of his finances at this early point in the primaries. Dean has reportedly used 39 of the 42 million dollars raised until the end of last year.
With so many questions left to be pondered, one thing is certain: this race is nowhere near being finished, and all of the candidates have a rutty road ahead.
As of Tuesday, February 3, 2004 one more potential candidate backed out with dignity intact. Senator Joe Lieberman after poor projections tonight decided it was time to go.
Tuesday was the first major challenge for the 2,161 delegates that will determine who will be the democratic nominee. There were primaries in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Dakota, Delaware, and Missouri. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been officially declared the winner in New Mexico, Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, and North Dakota. The Junior Senator from South Carolina, John Edwards has that state locked up. The only race that has no clear winner right now is Oklahoma. Oklahoma has two competitors almost in a dead heat, separated by less than 1500 votes.
One important thing to remember is that these are not winner-take-all elections. The delegates are divvied out based on the percentage of votes they receives. The lowest amount one can receive and still get delegates is 15%; this does not bode well for some of the candidates in second and third place. The candidate to come out of Tuesday with the most delegates is Kerry; however, he will not receive as much as predicted by many political analysts all week.
If the percentages stay as they are with less than 5% left to report at this late stage, he will gain about 96 of the 260 delegates available now. This would bring his total to 228 pledged delegates.
Dean is a distant 2nd with just a little more than half of the delegates at 118, followed closely by Edwards and Wesley Clark with 100 and 78 respectively. Oklahoma is not counted in these totals because of the closeness of the race at this time.
Where do they go from here? It is possible that we will see other candidates drop out as poor showings hurt campaign contributions. One candidate has almost exhausted all of his finances at this early point in the primaries. Dean has reportedly used 39 of the 42 million dollars raised until the end of last year.
With so many questions left to be pondered, one thing is certain: this race is nowhere near being finished, and all of the candidates have a rutty road ahead.