Romney, Clinton claim Michigan

COMBINED DISPATCHES (AP) — Mitt Romney scored his first major primary victory Tuesday in his native Michigan, a win he desperately needed to give his weakened candidacy new life and set the stage for a wide-open Republican showdown in South Carolina in just four days.

Romney was the third Republican victor in the first four states to vote in the 2008 primary season, further roiling a volatile nomination fight that lacks a clear favorite.

The former Massachusetts governor defeated John McCain, the Arizona senator who was hoping that independents and Democrats would join Republicans to help him repeat his 2000 triumph here. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, trailed in third, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson was waiting for the top three candidates in South Carolina, already campaigning.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton got more than half the votes and held a lead of less than 15 points over Uncommitted on Tuesday, exit polling showed, in a Democratic presidential primary that saw scant voting across the state.

But light turnout and the unusual nature of the ballot made it difficult to interpret how much support Clinton or her rivals actually have.

The Democratic primary became largely a straw poll because two major candidates — Barack Obama and John Edwards — took their names off the ballot and the national Democratic Party stripped Michigan of its delegates after it violated party rules by moving up the date of the primary.

It appeared enough voters would choose Uncommitted to meet the 15 percent threshold to qualify for delegates to the national convention in August should the party relent and seat the state’s delegates.