Associated Press
By Calvin Woodward
March 22, 2016
Donald
Trump and Hillary Clinton would love to wrap things up and get on with a
head-to-head race for the White House, unobstructed by rivals who just
won’t quit.
Contests
Tuesday in Arizona, Utah and Idaho decide how near that moment might be
for one of them or both. The two are clear front-runners but Clinton
has an easier path.
Even
Trump, for all of his supreme confidence and frequent flights of
hyperbole, is raising questions now about whether he can clinch the
Republican nomination before the July convention.
If not, he’ll be steeled for an extraordinary struggle in Cleveland
against elements of the party that are exploring every option to hand
the prize to another candidate. In contrast, Clinton’s lead in delegates
is close to unassailable, but coming primaries
may be friendly enough to rival Bernie Sanders to keep him credibly in
the Democratic fight.
The
backdrop Tuesday was carnage in Europe. Will the deadly bombings in
Brussels, tentatively tied to the Islamic State, nudge Republicans
toward Trump, the man who wants to seal the borders
to non-American Muslims? Or toward a Washington insider steeped in
foreign policy and national security experience?
Well,
it won’t do that, because there is no such person left in the GOP race.
But John Kasich or Ted Cruz might be seen as having the steadier hand
in crisis. So might Clinton, the former
secretary of state, on the Democratic side.
The Lineup...
—Republican
and Democratic primaries in Arizona. The GOP race awards all 58
delegates to the winner. Clinton and Sanders are divvying up 75
delegates.
—Republican
and Democratic caucuses in Utah. If a Republican wins more than 50
percent support, he will take all 40 delegates; otherwise the prize will
be proportional among Trump, Cruz and
Kasich. Clinton and Sanders are competing for the largest share of 40
delegates. Nine Republican delegates are up for grabs in American Samoa.
—Democratic
caucuses in Idaho, with 23 delegates at stake. Idaho Republicans handed
Cruz a strong victory over Trump on March 11.
Delegate Scorecard
Before Tuesday night:
Republicans: Trump, 681; Cruz, 425; Kasich, 143. Needed to win: 1,237.
Democrats: Clinton, 1,163; Sanders, 844. Needed to win: 2,383.
Democrats with pledged superdelegates: Clinton, 1,630; Sanders, 870.
Voters Say...
—
“She’s the only one who’s been out here trying to make a difference.” —
Marie Howard, 57, of Tonalea, Arizona, on why she’s backing Clinton.
Howard and her family were among thousands of
Navajos who were moved off Hopi land in a bitter dispute before
settling in an area of the Navajo Nation. Clinton visited long before
she became a presidential candidate.
—
“You don’t hear anyone mention the Natives. All these different
candidates say they’re going to do this or that for certain people, the
Hispanics, the whites, that’s the sad part.” — Longtime
Republican Lorraine Maloney, 60, of Cameron, Arizona, who voted for
Cruz at a polling site on the Navajo Nation where gusty winds sent dust
swirling and rocked vehicles.
Arizona
Trump’s
tough immigration message rattles many Americans, but in Arizona it
sits comfortably in the saddle for a lot of people. How comfortably may
become more evident in a contest in which
Trump has been favored.
He
campaigned in the state flanked by two other hard-liners on the issue,
ex-Gov. Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Trump’s rallies were again
raw, with obscenity-spitting protesters, angry
supporters, bottles and insults thrown by demonstrators at the
attendees and the kicking and punching of a protester by a man arrested
at the scene.
The
state tests Clinton’s appeal with Latinos in the Southwest, who
appeared to favor Sanders in Nevada. She won the 2006 Arizona primary
against Barack Obama.
Utah
Cruz
made a strong push; the question is whether he can win majority support
and take all the delegates. That’s a tougher bar with Kasich in the
mix. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee and
a leading Trump critic, is using his influence with fellow Mormons and
others in Utah to nudge voters toward Cruz, saying: “A vote for John
Kasich is a vote for Donald Trump.”
Kasich,
the Ohio governor, has been a leading voice for civility in the race,
which is not to say his campaign is pure. In an online ad, he falsely
implies that Romney backed him in Utah.
Obama defeated Clinton in 2008.
Idaho
The
ingredients were in a place for a good night for Sanders: thousands of
supporters at a rally Monday, no campaign visits by Clinton, a caucus
system that plays to his strengths, a largely
white population and an election open to anyone, not just Democrats.
Obama defeated Clinton in overwhelming fashion in 2008.
A Refresher
Clinton won all five races a week ago, almost doubling Sanders’ delegate haul in Florida in the process.
Trump
won four of six races, taking all 99 delegates in Florida, scoring a
strong victory in Illinois, edging out Cruz in North Carolina and taking
the small prize in the Northern Mariana
Islands. Missouri remains undecided.
Next Up
Democratic races Saturday in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
Both parties hold contests April 5 in Wyoming; in mid-April the campaign swings to big states in the Northeast.
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