Kerry has dominating day at the primaries

As the results of primaries and caucuses held across seven states were tallied up Tuesday evening, Sen. John Kerry came out as the clear winner among the Democratic nominee hopefuls. Kerry received the majority of the votes in five of the seven states. Sen. John Edwards claimed South Carolina and Clark managed a narrow victory in Oklahoma.\nPolitical Science Professor Edward Carmines said the Super Seven is significant because it more closely resembles a national poll than the Iowa and New Hampshire votes. \n"Up until now, we have had one primary and one caucus," he said. "So this is the first time when the candidates will face multiple contests on a single day."\nPrimaries were held in Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina while North Dakota and New Mexico held more informal caucuses. Carmines said campaigning for the Super Seven was a big challenge for the candidates because the states involved are spread apart and the candidates only have a week following the New Hampshire primary to campaign. \n"It puts a lot of pressure on these candidates to decide which states they ought to focus on and how much resources they ought to spend on the ones that they are not focusing on," Carmines said.\nCandidates choose to focus their attention on the particular states they believed they could do well in, Carmines said. \n"You are better off winning one or two states even if you do very poorly in the remaining states," he said. "The candidates need to create some momentum for their campaigns. The way to do that is to win one or more states."\nCarmines said Kerry has been helped significantly by his recent victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. \n"His fund raising has picked up," he said. "He has increased very dramatically the number and amount of contributions that he has gotten in the last week and national press coverage has made him seem like the front runner."\nPolitical Science Professor Marjorie Hershey said Kerry's performance will continue to increase his chances of becoming the Democratic Party's nominee. \n"Kerry in the national polls was at about seven or eight percent the first week in January, just a month ago. The day after the Iowa caucus, that went up to 25 to 30 percent and the day after New Hampshire, that went up to about 45 percent," she said.\nSen. Joe Lieberman announced Tuesday he was withdrawing from the race after weak results since the Iowa caucus. Lieberman was banking on doing well in Delaware but voters there rallied for Kerry. Dean also performed poorly Tuesday after choosing to focus on Saturday's upcoming Michigan and Washington caucuses. \nCarmines said Dean, who was once considered the front runner by some, has suffered from poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire. \n"Dean thought that he would do better than he did in New Hampshire," he said, "and that it would be the launching pad for doing well in these other states."\nHershey believes Dean's campaign is increasingly facing an up-hill battle. \n"He doesn't have the money to put up ads in these seven states so it is simply by default that he is not focusing on them," she said. "If you do not have ads running you are assumed not to be a serious candidate."\nDean had spent about $40 million for the New Hampshire primary, setting a presidential campaign record and leaving his campaign nearly broke.\nJennifer Perry, a volunteer for Bloomington Dean Supporters, said she believes Dean will be able to make a late comeback. \n"We have a great organization on the ground in Washington and in Michigan," Perry said. "Personally I think he was spending the money where he thought it would have the most impact." \n-- Contact staff writer Rami Chami at rchami@indiana.edu