Kerry wins Washington and Michigan caucuses
WASHINGTON: Sen. John Kerry won crushing caucus victories in Michigan and Washington state on Saturday, trouncing his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination and quickly launching a sharp attack against President George W. Bush.
The Democratic front-runner by far, Kerry fashioned his latest victories by outsized margins.
He held a double-digit lead in Washington, and was gaining more than 50 percent of the vote in a multi-candidate race in Michigan.
Howard Dean, shut out in the primary season to date, suffered a fresh blow when the head of a major union decided to withdraw his support.
Democratic officials said Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, delivered the news to the former front-runner during a meeting in Burlington, Vermont.
"This week George Bush and the Republican smear machine have trotted out the same old tired lines of attack that they've used before to divide this nation and to evade the real issues before us,'' the Massachusetts senator said in remarks prepared for a Democratic Party dinner in Richmond, Virginia.
"They're extreme, we're mainstream and we're going to stand up and fight back,'' he said.
Aides said the speech was designed to reassure the party faithful he would fight far harder against Republican attacks than Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor who led the party to defeat in 1988.
Like Dean, Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark signaled in advance they had scant hopes for success during the day. They aimed their efforts at states still ahead on the campaign calendar.
Returns from 76 percent of Washington's precincts showed Kerry with 49 percent and Dean with 30 percent. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio had 8 percent; Edwards had 6 percent and Clark had 3 percent.
Returns from 15 percent of Michigan's caucuses showed Kerry with 57 percent support. Edwards had 15 percent, Dean 14 percent, Clark 7 percent, Kucinich 4 percent and Al Sharpton 3 percent.
A Michigan party official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said almost-complete returns showed Kerry with 55 percent, Edwards and Dean at 15 percent, and Sharpton winning 10 percent. - AP
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