ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After a grueling month of campaigning that began in Iowa, Florida voters have finally anointed a Republican front-runner in the race for the White House.

Arizona Sen. John McCain now stands with an open road ahead moving into next week's Super Tuesday delegate-palooza after defeating Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State's hard-fought winner-take-all Republican primary, 36 percent to 31 percent.

Tuesday night's win not only gives McCain's candidacy momentum going forward but adds 57 delegates to his total — thrusting him into the lead in that category as well. McCain now leads Romney 97 delegates to 74. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to win the GOP presidential nomination.

Things could have actually turned out worse for Romney in Florida had the Republican National Committee earlier not halved the state's winner-take-all delegate count as punishment for scheduling its primary prior to Feb. 5.

On Tuesday's Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., trounced Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., in essentially a popularity contest with no delegates at stake after the Democratic National Committee, similar to the GOP, punitively stripped Florida of all of its 210 delegates to its national convention for also scheduling its primary before Feb. 5.

Election night ended more than a week of campaigning in Florida, which grew increasingly bitter between Romney and McCain, a Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war. Polls had showed the candidates just a few percentage points apart, and Romney continued to focus on the economy, a strategy that helped him win Michigan's primary earlier this month.

But the message ultimately fell short.

"Almost but not quite," Romney told disappointed supporters in St. Petersburg after the race was called in McCain's favor by several national news organizations.

"All of you guys are family. (But) don't expect to be part of the inheritance. I'm not sure there's going to be much left after this," Romney joked.

"Knowing how America works is more important than knowing how Washington works. The economy is in my DNA," Romney said, borrowing many lines from his stump speech. "I think it's time for the politicians to leave Washington and for the citizens to take over."

If Romney settled for yet another silver finish in Florida, it was Rudy Giuliani who took home bronze.