'Potomoc Primary' Now Seen As Pivotal

WASHINGTON ~ The nation's capital and its suburbs have a rare opportunity to help decide a presidential election rather than just obsess about it, as next Tuesday's three-jurisdiction contest centers on Washington and its two neighbors.

Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia usually hold primaries after the two parties' nominees are settled. This year, however, the Democratic nomination remains very much in play, and the Republican contest still has life, as the contests move to the mid-Atlantic region.

What some have dubbed the Potomac Primary "could be pivotal," said Peter Franchot, a Democrat elected as Maryland's comptroller in 2006.

Most of the action is on the Democratic side. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are battling over 168 delegates in heavily Democratic Maryland and D.C., and in Virginia, once a reliably Republican state in presidential elections but now a more competitive prize.

Republicans have 116 delegates at stake that day, but virtually no campaigning has taken place so far. "There's not much going on" in Virginia, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said Tuesday, although he is trying to stir up support for fellow Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

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