Presidential contests for both parties today

Washington offers 78 delegates for the Democratic hopefuls.

WASHINGTON (AP) — By their presence, Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton anointed Washington state as their prime battleground in a trio of Democratic presidential contests today.

Arizona Sen. John McCain and Mike Huckabee hunted for delegates in three states, too, keeping a vigorous pace despite the sense that the Republican race is essentially over, with McCain firmly on the road to the nomination.

“I still believe that we can win,” Huckabee told listeners at one of his Friday gatherings.

Few share that view. Many critics assume that Huckabee’s only rationale for staying in the race is to gain leverage for the vice-presidential spot on McCain’s ticket.

McCain has more than six months — a political eternity — to choose a running mate for the Republican National Convention to formally nominate, along with himself, in early September.

People in Washington and Louisiana were voting today for the nominees of both parties, while Nebraska was holding Democratic-only caucuses and Kansas was weighing in on the Republicans. Maine holds caucuses Sunday in the Democratic race.

Both Democrats visited Washington, the richest weekend prize with 78 delegates, and the campaign was as lively as it was short.

Obama drew nearly 20,000 to a raucous Seattle arena and overflow space Friday, a day after 10,000 packed the Illinois senator’s rally in strongly Republican Nebraska — a state Clinton didn’t visit, sending daughter Chelsea instead.

Obama won the last-minute endorsement Friday of Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, only the second female governor of the state. Both candidates had courted her — Obama speaking with her four times.

“He is leading us toward a positive feeling of hope in our country and I love seeing that happen,” Gregoire said. Washington’s senators, both women, back Clinton.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, one of them, introduced the New York senator to a crowd in Spokane and likened her to four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher and the Native American woman Sacajawea, who served as a guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s.

“We like women pioneers here in the Northwest,” Cantwell said.

“Hillary is here to listen, to answer questions and to make history, and Washington state is here to help her do that.”

At the Obama rally, Lisa Jones, 32, said she likes his fresh face and approach. “I feel about him the way I did about Bill Clinton in 1992,” she said. “I like Hillary, but she doesn’t make my heart skip like Obama.”

“This is my Woodstock,” said Roger Thompson, 52. “I get to rid myself of the cynicism and even fatalism that has taken over this country.”