McCain, Clinton lead delegate count

John McCain has seized a commanding lead in the race for the Republican nomination. The Democratic contests have left Clinton and Obama in a close race for their party's nod.

Wednesday, February 6th 2008, 12:01 pm

By: News 9

Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- John McCain has seized a commanding lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The Arizona senator won a sizable chunk of yesterday's collection of Super Tuesday states and has laid claim to the title "frontrunner."

As expected, the Democratic Super Tuesday contests have left Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in a close race for their party's nod.

McCain took advantage of the winner-take-all provision in 9 of the GOP contests to grab the lion's share of the delegates at stake: 511, compared to 176 for Mitt Romney and 147 for Mike Huckabee.

Overall, McCain now has 613 delegates, more than half the 1,191 needed to nominate.

On the Democratic side, some of the Super Tuesday delegates still haven't been decided. But the latest count gives Clinton 584 to 563 for Obama.

It'll take 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination this summer. The Associated Press shows Clinton now has 845 and Obama has 765.