Candidates look ahead to Texas, Ohio
HOUSTON -- Before polls closed Tuesday in Wisconsin and Washington state, the fight already was on in Texas and Ohio for the next prizes in the presidential sweepstakes.
The campaigns of Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama held dueling events in Houston, the biggest Texas city. Republican John McCain campaigned in a Milwaukee suburb before heading to Ohio.
"I will be our party's nominee for president of the United States," McCain said after scoring an easy Wisconsin win. "Now comes the hard part," he added, vowing to wage a fight against "an eloquent but empty call for change," a veiled shot at Obama, who has made change his campaign theme.
Obama continued his post-Super Tuesday winning streak with a Wisconsin victory. Clinton, meanwhile, has been looking to the March 4 contests in Ohio and Texas to regain momentum in the delegate race.
In the Lone Star State, Obama rented the arena that is home to the Houston Rockets basketball team for a rally that drew 12,000. A few blocks away, Clinton's surrogate in chief, her husband and former president Bill Clinton, headlined a private fundraiser whose tickets went for as much $1,000.
Hillary Clinton touted her economic proposals earlier in a Cleveland suburb. She then was to spend the night at home in New York and planned stops in Texas' heavily Hispanic Rio Grande Valley today.
Clinton and Obama will meet Thursday in Austin for a debate sponsored by CNN.
McCain, an Arizona senator, is looking to build his delegate count to the 1,191 needed to clinch the GOP nomination. The GOP front-runner still faces an aggressive challenge from former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who campaigns in a Dallas suburb today.
An Associated Press tally gave McCain 908 delegates going into Tuesday, and he won at least 13 in Wisconsin. Voters in Washington, where 19 delegates are at stake, are mostly casting ballots by mail and results won't be known until today.
At a rally Tuesday in Brookfield, Wis., McCain said he respects Huckabee's decision to stay in the race but added that Republicans must unite and prepare for the fall campaign. "We're going to face a tough competitor," he said.
