WASHINGTON — Barack Obama won the Democrats Abroad global primary in results announced Thursday, giving him 11 straight victories in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The Illinois senator won the primary in which Democrats living in other countries voted by Internet, mail and in person, according to results released by the Democrats Abroad, an organization sanctioned by the national party.
More than 20,000 U.S. citizens living abroad voted in the primary, which ran from Feb. 5 to Feb. 12. Obama won about 65 percent of the vote, according to the results released Thursday.
There is no comparable primary among Republicans, though the GOP has several contests this weekend in U.S. territories, including party caucuses in Puerto Rico Sunday.
McCain loan raises FEC questions
WASHINGTON — The government’s top campaign finance regulator says John McCain can’t drop out of the primary election’s public financing system until he answers questions about a loan he obtained to kickstart his once faltering presidential campaign.
Federal Election Commission Chairman David Mason, in a letter to McCain this week, said the all-but-certain Republican nominee needs to assure the commission that he did not use the promise of public money to help secure a $4 million line of credit he obtained in November.
McCain’s lawyer, Trevor Potter, said Wednesday evening that McCain has withdrawn from the system and that the FEC can’t stop him. Potter, who was FEC chairman in 1994, said the campaign did not encumber the public funds in any way.
“Well, it was done before in another campaign. … We think it’s perfectly legal. One of our advisers is a former chairman of the FEC, and we are confident that it was an appropriate thing to do,” McCain told a news conference Thursday.
Change to Win endorses Obama
WASHINGTON — The new Change to Win labor federation gave its first presidential endorsement to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday, saying its 6 million members could help push him over the top and into the general election as the Democratic nominee.
“We think we can make a difference,” chair Anna Burger said. “We think it’s time to bring this nomination to a close.”
The endorsement came after a teleconference between Change to Win’s leaders and the heads of the seven unions that make up the federation. The federation’s members will now head to the crucial election states of Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island for the upcoming March 4 primaries, as well as in Pennsylvania on April 22.
Change to Win has 175,000 members in Ohio, 60,000 in Texas and 25,000 in Rhode Island, Burger said. Besides leafletting, knocking on doors and advocating for Obama at workplaces, Burger said she expected more than 100,000 Change to Win voters to participate in the Ohio primary alone.
Clinton tells supporters to vote early
LAREDO, Texas — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday urged Texas supporters to vote early, giving them a toll-free number to call and find out locations in their county.
“I am only here because millions of people have voted for me, and hundreds of thousands have contributed and supported me through tough times and easy times,” Clinton said.
Early voting began Wednesday in Texas, which holds its primary March 4.
The former first lady also pressed her case that she is better prepared for the presidency than rival Barack Obama.
“I want you (to) think who is best able to stand on stage with Senator John McCain and make the case to elect a Democrat in the fall,” she said
Huckabee casts himself as outsider
HOUSTON — Republican Mike Huckabee portrayed himself Thursday as a Washington outsider who would solve problems his presidential rivals, all with Washington ties, have failed to address.
“What I see is a whole bunch of the same, even the ones who say they’re going to change things,” the former Arkansas governor told a couple hundred supporters at a morning rally in Houston.
“If you believe Washington has the answers, you’ve got plenty of choices for president. If you believe they’re the ones who messed it up, then tell me and explain to me and justify to me why you would give someone who lives in Washington now, who works there, who is in the middle of the system, why you would give them the keys to make serious changes when they’ve been there and haven’t made any yet?”
Feingold ‘inclined’ to back Obama
WASHINGTON — Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold said he is “inclined” to support Barack Obama for president because of the Democratic candidate’s victory in Feingold’s state this week.
The Illinois senator won Wisconsin by a 17-percentage-point margin over Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York senator.
Feingold, a Democrat who has a large following among liberals, declined to say definitively that he would support Obama. As one of 18 Wisconsin superdelegates, Feingold is free to back any candidate at the Democratic National Convention.
Feingold said that in making a final decision, he’ll take into account whether a person is the right person for president and can win. “But the largest thought on my mind is what the people of the state indicated,” he said.
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