Senator John McCain is projected victor in Maryland, Virginia, DC  Senator John McCain turned Tuesday contests in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC into three more victories for his presidential campaign, fighting off a surprise challenge in the latter state from Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Although Maryland polls stayed open until 9:30 pm ET after a judge ruled that inclement weather required extended polling, TV news networks called the state for McCain just after they closed. And according to the Virginia State Board of Elections, with about 88% of the vote counted, Sen. McCain had an approximately 30,000-vote lead over Gov. Mike Huckabee. And at around 9:45, networks called DC for McCain.
An upset in favor of Huckabee in Virginia would have come as a major surprise to political watchers. Beyond McCain's strong showing in polls, he had the support of key party leadership in the state, including soon to retire Sen. Mark Warner, former Sen. George Allen, and former presidential candidate and ex-Governor Jim Gilmore.
McCain's likely victory in Virginia may have required him to pull together moderate and independent voters to overcome the concerns of the state's conservatives about his record..
Exit poll data shows that 63% of Huckabee's voters considered McCain's record "Not conservative enough." Moreover, about 70% of Huckabee's voters described themselves as "very conservative," while 64% of McCain's voters were "moderates." Among Huckabee supporters, 68% also said that they would not be satisfied with a McCain candidacy.
Curiously, while the exit poll sample's supporters of McCain and Huckabee were roughly even in describing themselves as Republicans, more of Huckabee's voters described themselves as "independents."
However, it is worth noting that CNN's exit poll results used a relatively small sample of 672 voters.
Earlier, leaked exit polls showed Virginia as too close to call.
"In Virginia, the second wave of data shows an extremely close race, less than a percentage point between McCain and Huckabee," the National Review Online's Jim Geraghty reported at his blog.
Geraghty was quick to point out that exit poll data is often imperfect, and has wrongly called a variety of contests in this election season.
But, he pointed out, Sen. McCain was defeating Gov. Huckabee 51 to 37% in Maryland in the leaked polls.
 
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