Jan 16, 2008 8:55 am US/Central
Romney Gets Critical Win In Michigan
All Three GOP Contenders Have Major Win Going Into S.C.
DETROIT (CBS News) ―
Mitt Romney won the Michigan Republican primary on Tuesday, with
John McCain coming in second and
Mike Huckabee in third place. With a win, the former Massachusetts governor is poised to revive his weakened presidential candidacy with a hard-fought victory in his native state.
"It's a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism. The people of Michigan said they believe in someone who is going to fight for them," Romney said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press Tuesday night.
"Michigan welcomed their native son with their support," McCain told the AP. The Arizona senator congratulated Romney and vowed to "win in South Carolina" on Saturday.
Huckabee, too, already campaigning in the next primary state, said in Lexington, S.C.: ``We're going to win South Carolina. We put a flag in the ground here Saturday.'' He also jabbed at Romney, who has poured at least $20 million of his personal fortune into his bid: ``We need to prove that electing a president is not just about how much money a candidate has.''
The results add yet another wrinkle to a volatile nomination fight that lacks a clear favorite. Three GOP candidates now have won in the first four states to vote in the 2008 primary season.
"There has been no Republican primary like this since the dawn of primaries," said CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield. "They are an organized party - they're like a frontrunner. This time, good luck finding one."
Because the Democratic National Committee punished Michigan for moving its primary to January 15th, the Democratic race was of little to no importance.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was the only top contender on the Democratic ballot, won the Democratic primary. Many supporters of
Barack Obama and
John Edwards voted "uncommitted."
CBS News exit polls show that the economy was far and away the top issue on the minds of Republicans in Michigan Tuesday, with 55 percent listing it as their most important issue. Voters who identified the economy as their key issue favored Romney over McCain.
McCain beat out Romney among Democrats and independents, but only about a third of voters in the GOP race identified themselves as such. In 2000, more than half of the GOP voters were Democrats or independents.
The Arizona senator had been hoping that independents and Democrats would join Republicans to help him repeat his 2000 win here.
Romney neutralized Huckabee's strength among religious voters, running even with the Iowa caucuses champ among white evangelicals. In recent days, Huckabee campaigned more extensively in Michigan than he'd originally planned.
"We wanted to show that we're in play even in a northern industrial state, and quite frankly, more so than I think people would have expected," Huckabee told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes this morning.
Of the three GOP candidates competing hard here, Romney needed a Michigan victory the most to right a bid weakened by searing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
"Momentum has yet to make an appearance for any candidate but his win in Michigan gets the monkey off Romney's back for the moment," writes CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs.
A muddle from the start, the GOP race has only grown more fluid as the first states voted over the past two weeks.
Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, McCain prevailed in New Hampshire's primary, and Romney was second to both - but claimed victory in scarcely contested Wyoming.
Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, is camping out in South Carolina looking for his first win.
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, is doing the same in Florida, which votes Jan. 29.
"The more candidates that are in there, the worse it is it seems to me for John McCain, who is now leading in the national polls," said CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer.
Romney's Michigan roots figured prominently in his campaign here. He was born and raised in the state and his late father, George, was head of American Motors and a three-term governor in the 1960s. Romney announced his presidential candidacy in Michigan a year ago and has campaigned in it far more than his rivals and spent considerably more money on advertising in the state.
In exit polls, four in 10 Republican primary voters said Romney's ties to Michigan were very or somewhat important to their vote, and more than half of them voted for him.
McCain had a built-in advantage of his own. He won the state's primary eight years ago on the strength of independent and Democratic-crossover voters, and still had a network of hard-core backers. This year, McCain didn't have to compete full-bore for non-Republican voters because the Democratic race in Michigan was essentially a beauty contest.
Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, had hoped to stage a surprise finish with the support from Christian evangelicals who live in the more conservative, western part of the state. With his populist pitch, Huckabee also wanted to do well in Reagan Republican country outside of Detroit. He came from behind to win the Iowa caucuses and sought another surprise finish.
The economy dominated the weeklong Michigan campaign. The state has been reeling from the U.S. auto industry's downturn and has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 7.4 percent.
Michigan doesn't typically hold its primary until February but state party officials scheduled it earlier to try to give the state more say in picking a president. The Republican National Committee objected and cut the number of Michigan delegates to the national convention by half as punishment while the Democratic National Committee stripped the state of all 128 delegates to its national convention.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
