John McCain defeated the other Republican presidential candidates to win the Florida primary and in the process knocked Rudy Giuliani out of the race. Giuliani staked his candidacy on winning Florida and his defeat there means that he will drop out of the race soon. The Republican race is now looking like a two way race between John McCain and Mitt Romney with Super Tuesday less than a week away.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of it’s delegates and as a result the candidates did not campaign in the sate. Hillary Clinton, the winner of Florida, is lobbying to have Florida’s delegates reinstated.

Presidential Candidates
Republican Presidential Primary John McCain 36% Mitt Romney 31% Rudy Giuliani 15% Mike Huckabee 14% Ron Paul 3%		Democrat Presidential Primary Hillary Clinton 50% Barack Obama 33% John Edwards 14%

County by County Florida Primary Election Results from the Washington Post

Rudy Giuliani’s unconventional campaign strategy was to skip the early states to focus on Florida. The strategy did not pay off and Giuliani did not win a single county in Florida. Expect him to drop out of the race and endorse McCain soon.

County by County Florida Primary Election Results from the New York Times

1/20/2008 Pre-Election Coverage

Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani’s once significant lead in Florida has collapsed and it is now a four way race with Rudy Giuliani , John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney essentially tied. Romney, Huckabee and McCain are trending upwards in the polls at Giuliani’s expense with both Romney and McCain enjoying momentum from their wins in Nevada and South Carolina.

Democrats:

The Democratic National Convention stripped Florida of all its delegates as punishment for moving their primary from February 5th to January 29th without permission. As a result, Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have all pledged not to campaign in Florida. Hillary Clinton leads in the polls.

Pre-Election Coverage: Political Geography – An Interactive Guide to Florida from the Washington Post

Pre-Election Coverage: The Last Scramble from the New York Times

Pre-Election Florida Primary Election Scorecard from the Slate

Map the Candidates

Pre-Election Florida Primary Coverage from the New York Times

Links:

• Florida Governor Endorses McCain
• What’s at Stake in the Florida Primary?
• CNN Election Center: Florida
  
• Why Rudy Giuliani’s Survival Depends on Winning the Florida Primary

John McCain wins January 19th Republican Presidential Primary in South Carolina: Eight years after his Presidential campaign imploded in South Carolina, John McCain wins the Republican presidential primary with 33% of the vote. McCain was followed by Huckabee (30%), Thompson (16%), Romney (15%), Paul (4%) and Giuliani (2%).

Barack Obama wins the January 26th Democratic Presidential Primary: In the bitter campaign charged with racial tension, Barack Obama won a commandinding victory with 55% of the vote. Clinton received 27% and Edwards 18%.

South Carolina Primary Election Maps from the New York Times
Democrats

Republicans

Washington Post South Carolina Primary Coverage

Results and Maps below.

Republican Presidential Primary – January 19th, 2008 John McCain 33.2% Mike Huckabee 29.9% Mitt Romney 15.1% Fred Thompson 15.7% Ron Paul 3.7% Rudy Giuliani 2.1%

Democrat Presidential Primary – January 26th, 2008 Hillary Clinton 55% Barack Obama 27% John Edwards 18%

Pre-Election Coverage 1/5/2008

New York Times South Carolina Primary Coverage

Links:

• New York Times South Carolina Primary Coverage
• NPR Election Coverage
• Cogitamus: 2008 South Carolina Republican Primary Results Map
• Washington Post South Carolina Primary Coverage
• CNN Coverage of the South Carolina Primary
• More Maps from The Electoral Map Blog

Republican Primary: Mitt Romney 39%. John McCain 30%. Mike Huckabee 16%. Ron Paul 6%. Fred Thompson 4%. Rudy Giuliani 3%.
Democratic Primary: Hillary Clinton 55% of vote. Uncommitted 40%. The Democratic National Committee stripped Michigan of it’s delegates for violating party rules and neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards contested the Michigan primary and did not appear on the ballot. Obama and Edwards’ supporters were encouraged to vote “Uncommitted”.

via CNN election results as of 7:45 AM EST 1/16/2008

Interactive County by County Michigan Primary Maps from the Washington Post

Mitt Romney wins Republican Michigan Primary

Hillary Clinton wins Democratic Michigan Primary

New York Times County by County & Margin of Victory Primary Maps

Detroit News County by County Primary Map

Michigan Republican Primary Map from the Washington Post
The Washington Post has an interactive map of Michican showing key areas for each candidate. Huckabee is counting on the support of the Christian conservatives in the Southwest and the Northwest. Romney is counting on Grand Rapids and Detroit. McCain is also counting on Detroit.

Michigan Candidate Stops from Slate
Since the January 8th New Hampshire Primary, Mitt Romney has made 18 campaign stops in Michigan, 2 more than McCain and twice as many as Huckabee.

New York Times Michigan Primary Coverage

Links:

• New York Times Michigan Primary Coverage
• NPR Election Coverage

Nevada and South Carolina are the next battleground states.

Top 10 States by Campaign Contribution ($) from PoliticalBase.com as of September 2007:

1. Texas – $674,313
2. California – $669,472
3. Florida – $268,789
4. Washington – $163,382
5. Illiois – $155,091
6. New York – $130,703
7. Pennsylvania – $117,529
8. Georgia – $107,037
9. New Jersey – $99,998
10. Michigan – $96,062

New York Times Campaign Finance Map view where the money is coming from (last updated 9/2007)

New York Times Candidate Schedule Maptracking the candidates on the campaign trail

Also, check out Slate.com’s Map the Candidates

Compete.com’s If Clicks Equaled Votes – using web traffic to rank the candidates

From Compete.com Paul attracts the largest online following not only is his home state of Texas, but he also outdraws all of his rivals in their home states as well (Giuliani—New York; Huckabee—Arkansas; McCain—Arizona; Romney—Michigan and Massachusetts; and Thompson—Tennessee). This certainly runs counter to the notion that Paul’s support is localized to a few pockets (read: basements) around the country.
Paul also leads in friends on Digg.com

Links:

• Ron Paul for President – official campaign site
• Ron Paul Profile: (New York Times) (Washington Post) (wikipedia)
• Ron Paul’s Cyber-Campaign Slideshow – The Web Finds Its Man, and Takes Him for a Ride
• Rasmussen: Ron Paul Soars to 14% in NH
• Ron Paul Dropped from FOX’s NH Debate
• Ron Paul’s Record Online Haul
• Ron Paul is front-runner at fundraising
• Ron Paul fundraising numbers impressive
• The Internets Favorite Candidate
• Ron Paul Graphs and Analysis
• CS Monitor: An Absolute Faith in Free Markets and Less Government
• Daily Paul
• Exposing Ron Paul’s Social Media Manipulation