Florida springboards McCain into GOP presidential lead

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After an 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 stand with an open road in front of him heading into next week's Super Tuesday primary extravaganza following his narrow defeat of rival Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State's winner-take-all Republican primary.

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

On the Democratic side of Tuesday's primary, Hillary Clinton trounced Barak Obama in what was essentially a popularity contest with no delegates being awarded following the Democratic National Committee's decision to strip Florida of its 210 delegates to the national convention as punishment for scheduling the primary prior to Feb. 5.

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

But if Romney had to settle for yet another silver in Florida, it was former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who took home lead. After spending months and millions campaigning in Florida, he went from the candidate to beat to simply a beaten candidate.

Romney's campaign now heads to California today where the candidate will join McCain for the final Republican candidate debate before Super Tuesday. The event will be hosted at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and will be nationally televised. Romney will then continue stumping in the Golden State on Thursday before attending LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's funeral on Saturday.

California and Utah are two of the more than 20 states holding primary elections or caucuses for one or both major political parties on Feb. 5. In all, more than 1,000 delegates will be up for grabs.