Kerry wins presidential primary in Idaho, Utah
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-25 13:55

John Kerry is holding onto his title of Democratic front-runner, winning the Utah presidential primary and the Idaho caucuses Tuesday night, besting his nearest rival, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Kerry built a commanding lead in both contests early, and looked for more good fortune in the Hawaii contest, the last before a climactic 10-state round next week. Returns from Hawaii are expected early Wednesday.

Kerry topped Edwards almost 2-to-1 in the first returns from Utah and built an even stronger margin as the first Idaho precincts reported. Kerry led handily there in early returns, garnering 82 percent of the vote, with 28 percent of the precincts reporting. Edwards was in second place with 16 percent. Shortly afterward, The Associated Press projected Kerry as the winner in both contests.

Energy in Utah

The night’s three races were little more than blips on the political calendar, but voters in Utah were nonetheless energized. “Bush is turning me on to politics,” said Kathy Locke, a first-time voter in line at the polls in Salt Lake City. “He’s got to be stopped.”

Officials printed 5,000 extra ballots in Salt Lake City to accommodate the demand. “Three blocks from Temple Square and there’s a giant line of Democrats,” said Blake Sarlow, waiting to vote. “It’s the craziest thing.”

The candidates are putting their energies on the coming Super Tuesday prizes; Kerry is thought to be already looking beyond the nomination fight and tangling with President Bush.

Job-creation plans

Kerry and Edwards, looking ahead to next week’s 10-state showdown, pushed their job-creation plans earlier Tuesday.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) (R) hugs United Steel Workers Union Local 9401 Treasurer Janine Evanoff after she introduced him to speak to steelworkers during a campaign town hall meeting at the Astro Shapes, Inc factory in Struthers, Ohio, February 24, 2004.  [Reuters]

Kerry, victorious in 15 of the first 17 contests and taking firm control of the race to find a Democratic challenger to President Bush, hoped to extend his winning streak on Tuesday.

The three states have 61 delegates to July’s nominating convention at stake but have been ignored by the main contenders in recent weeks, as Kerry and Edwards look ahead to a potentially decisive “Super Tuesday” showdown in 10 states.

“I’m optimistic and hopeful, but I don’t have any judgment about it,” Kerry said of the three contests Tuesday. “I’m always cautiously optimistic.”

Edwards: It's not over
One day after Bush launched his re-election drive with a strong defense of his administration and a direct attack on Kerry, Edwards took pains to remind Bush and Democrats that the nomination race was far from over.

“Not so fast, George Bush, you don’t get to decide who our nominee is,” Edwards said in an event at the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta, reprising a line he used against Kerry last week in a debate in Wisconsin.

The 10 states holding contests next Tuesday include big states like New York, California and Ohio and provide more than half of the 2,162 delegates needed to win the nomination.

Kerry, campaigning in Ohio, and Edwards pushed plans to create jobs and criticized Bush for overseeing the loss of 2.6 million manufacturing positions during his administration.

Kerry met with unemployed workers in Struthers, Ohio, including an ironworker who said he was struggling to pay for the prescription drugs he needs for diabetes. More than 160,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Ohio while Bush was president.

“That’s exactly what we’re going to change,” Kerry told the worker. “Nobody in America should be in fear for their health.”

Opposition to NAFTA stressed

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), reacts to supporters backed up by Georgia Speaker of the House Terry Coleman (rear), and other Georgia Democratic Representatives at the Georgia State Capitol on February 24, 2004.[Reuters]

Edwards stressed his opposition to trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement that were supported by Kerry. “No one has to explain to me what trade agreements like NAFTA have to done in Georgia,” Edwards told supporters as he accepted the endorsement of 30 Georgia state legislators.

Edwards also criticized Bush’s foreign policy, which he said “disrespected” other countries, and promised to rebuild America’s credibility around the world.

“The truth is, every child and every family in America will be safer and more secure in a world where we’re respected and looked up to again,” Edwards said.

The event was Edwards’ sixth in Georgia, a crucial battleground on Super Tuesday. Edwards also has been pushing for votes in concentrating on Ohio, New York and Minnesota, hit hard by job losses.

'Saved our lives'

Kerry, a four-term Massachusetts senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran who has come under fire for his Senate votes against military weapons programs, began airing television ads in Ohio, California and upstate New York featuring a crewmate from the Navy Swift boat he commanded.

“The decisions that he made saved our lives,” Del Sandusky says in the 30-second spots. “He had unfailing instinct and unchallengeable leadership.

In an impromptu Tuesday discussion with workers atAstro Shapes, Inc., in Youngstown, Ohio, Kerry lamented the plight of "the countless numbers of seniors who’ve lost their retirement because of the Enrons and the WorldComs and the mutual fund scandals."

Referring to Bush's speech on Monday evening, Kerry said "last night, the president talked about a prosperity that millions of Americans are not feeling seeing or living. It's not the prosperity of 270,000 people who have lost their jobs in Ohio.

Kerry: Bush 'walking contradiction'
"Let the president come to Ohio and give a speech about their real lives," Kerry said in comments on the Astro Shapes factory floor. Calling Bush "a walking contradiction," Kerry laundry-listed what he called Bush's shortcomings.

"The president promised not to create a deficit, he created a $521 billion deficit. The president promised that he would leave no child behind and fund education, he is leaving millions of children behind and not funding education ...

"There are more broken promises in the trail of this administration that any administration I’ve ever served with," Kerry said.

Edwards and Kerry both condemned Bush’s decision to support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, accusing him of playing politics with the Constitution.

“All Americans should be concerned when a president who is in political trouble tries to tamper with the Constitution of the United States at the start of his re-election campaign,” Kerry said.

Added Edwards: “Washington has no business playing politics with this issue. Marriage is left to the states today and should remain with the states.”

Kerry is hoping to deliver a knockout blow to Edwards in the Super Tuesday contests. And a new poll released Tuesday showed that he leads the race for California’s 370 delegates by 32 points over Edwards.

Kerry trumps Edwards in L.A. Times poll

The Los Angeles Times poll showed Kerry with 56 percent to 24 percent for Edwards.

California’s delegates are the biggest prize of Super Tuesday. The Times poll found that almost half of the likely primary voters surveyed were influenced by the fact that Kerry was victorious in 15 of the first 17 contests.

Many analysts see the March 2 voting as the last chance for Edwards to prove his electability and keep his campaign alive. He bills himself as the only Democrat who can beat President Bush in the South but he has won only one state in the region so far, South Carolina, the state of his birth. Edwards lost Tennessee and Virginia.

“He needs to defeat Kerry in Georgia; otherwise the rationale for his campaign collapses,” Emory University political science professor Merle Black said.

Buoyed by a better-than-expected second-place finish in Wisconsin, Edwards wasted little time in launching his Georgia campaign but steered clear of calling the state one he must win.

Commanding delegate lead

Going into Tuesday’s voting, Kerry held a commanding delegate lead, 608 to 190 for Edwards.

“Looking ahead, unless something really blows up, John Kerry will be the nominee,” said Richard Ray, the spokesman for organized labor in Georgia as state president of the AFL-CIO, which has backed Kerry.

Meanwhile, President Bush, casting aside his desire to appear above the political fray, struck back at his Democratic critics Monday, portraying Kerry as a waffler and warning that Democrats would raise taxes, expand government and fail to lead decisively on national security.

Bush had hung back for months, despite constant pummeling by the Democratic presidential candidates. But he leveled his sharpest criticism yet at his rivals in a speech Monday night. Bush recalled terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, signaling his willingness to use the strikes for political gain, which his aides long had promised would not be done.

“September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of the Twin Towers. I remember a lot that day,” Bush told 1,400 Republican donors at a fund-raiser for GOP governors, recalling his trip to New York after the attacks.

Attacking Kerry

Bush, meanwhile, has prepared ads for an advertising onslaught that is to start March 4. His re-election campaign will buy airtime over the next two weeks in selected broadcast markets and nationally on cable stations, including CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, according to a Bush-Cheney campaign source, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

In his 40-minute address, Bush mentioned none of the Democratic presidential candidates by name, but some of his sharpest criticism was unmistakably intended for Kerry.

“The other party’s nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions,” Bush said. “They’re for tax cuts and against them. They’re for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They’re for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They’re in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that’s just one senator from Massachusetts.” His supportive audience erupted in laughter and applause.

Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter disputed Bush’s list of purported flip-flops. Kerry opposed Bush’s tax cuts for the richest Americans and stands by that; voted for NAFTA and stands by it; voted for the Patriot Act, but believes the Justice Department is using it to trample civil liberties; and stands by his vote to authorize force in Iraq, but believes Bush’s prosecution of the war “created a breeding ground for terror” and alienated allies, Cutter said.