John McCain and his wife Cindy vote in the GOP primary in their home state of Arizona Tuesday. (AP Photo) McCain sweeps Mich., Arizona Double victory gives him back momentum By Ron Fournier, Associated Press, 02/22/00 DETROIT -- John McCain thumped George W. Bush in a two-state sweep Tuesday night, rallying a "new McCain majority" of independents and Democrats in Michigan and winning his home state of Arizona to seize momentum for a two-week blitz of Republican primaries. Reaching out to Republican voters who backed the Texas governor in overwhelming numbers in Michigan, the senator told supporters, "Don't fear this campaign, my fellow Republicans. Join it." Bush, humbled by defeat, said, "This is a marathon and I'm going to be in it all the way to the end -- and some primaries you win and sometimes you don't." McCain's is the latest victory in a see-sawing Republican nomination race. The Arizonan won New Hampshire's leadoff primary in a landslide, lost the followup showdown in South Carolina and won Michigan by a narrow margin. It further damaged Bush's hard-fought image as the inevitable GOP nominee, and propelled both men toward a March 7 showdown in 13 states, "This means we're going to go charging into Super Tuesday," said state Sen. John Schwarz, McCain's chairman in Michigan. Even before winning his double header, McCain narrowed Bush's financial advantage and closed the gap in national polls since New Hampshire. In Michigan, Bush and McCain forged mirror-image coalitions: Bush vote was supported by two-thirds of Republicans, and McCain ventured outside the party for a similar-sized force of Democrats and independents. Open to all comers, Michigan's primary actually drew more non-Republicans than Republicans. Bush supporters bitterly dismissed McCain's victory. "John McCain isn't party building, he's party-borrowing," said three-term Michigan Gov. John Engler, who accused the senator of "renting Democrats" for the night. Engler had promised to carry Michigan for Bush, and took blame for the defeat. McCain's response: "Be a man." -In Michigan, with 67 percent of the precincts reporting, McCain had 462,823 votes, or 50 percent, and Bush had 409,490, or 44 percent. Former ambassador Alan Keyes had 5 percent. -In Arizona, with 45 percent of the precincts reporting, McCain had 135,047 votes, or 60 percent, and Bush had 80,473 votes, or 36 percent. Keyes had 3 percent. McCain's victories earned him all 30 delegates from Arizona and at least 19 of the 58 delegates in Michigan, narrowing his gap with Bush. McCain has 63 delegates to date, compared to Bush's 64. A candidate needs 1,034 delegates to win the Republican nomination. McCain told The Associated Press that GOP leaders backing Bush will peel away when they start realize his cross-party coalition would beat Vice President Al Gore. "As I look more electable, we'll start drawing more Republicans," said McCain, who received just one fourth of the GOP vote in Michigan "What I believe we are assembling is the new McCain majority." With an American flag serving as a backdrop, McCain told supporters later, "I am a proud Reagan conservative. I love the Republican Party. It is my home." And he courted Republicans who backed Bush on the assumption the Texan was the most likely to succeed. "We are Al Gore's worst nightmare." Interviews with voters as they left polling places showed that more than half of the Michigan voters were non-Republicans -- independents and Democrats who voted in far larger numbers than in 1996. Three-quarters of McCain's vote came from the non-Republicans, and three-quarters of Bush's vote came from bedrock Republicans. Voter News Service, a consortium of The Associated Press and television networks, conducted the interviews. In a whirlwind 48 hours after the South Carolina primary, Bush and McCain traded accusations of negative campaigning in Michigan. Each complained that the other was using automated phone calls to voters to make inflammatory religious attacks. Bush drew fewer number of bedrock Republicans than in South Carolina. McCain's mixed breed of voters -- blue-collar economic conservatives, union members and Baby Boomers -- voted in far larger numbers than in the previous contest. McCain's coalition was reminiscent of the voters who put Ronald Reagan into the White House then became a battleground for Democrats and Republicans in subsequent presidential elections. McCain did better among veterans than in South Carolina, and appeared to have greater success convincing voters that he was the race's true reformer and straight talker. In addition to his success among Democrats and independents, McCain earned the support of an overwhelming percentage of new voters. Bush voters were younger, more affluent, anti-abortion and strongly conservative. They cited his conservative values as their top reason for voting for him. Religious right voters also preferred Bush. Four in 10 voters said both candidates attacked unfairly, though the bickering seemed to leave Michigan voters with a more negative impression of Bush than McCain. That is a reverse of polling from South Carolina. In Arizona, McCain won the majority of Republicans, even as one in four voters in his home state said the senator didn't have the temperment to serve effectively as president. Bush campaigned side-by-side in Michigan with Engler, who appeared to draw some backlash from voters -- of those who said Engler's support affected their vote a great deal, two-thirds actually voted for McCain. Following contests in tiny New Hampshire and Delaware, remote Alaska and conservative South Carolina, Michigan tested the candidates' ability to appeal to a large, diverse electorate. Looking ahead to the March 7 contests, Bush stopped in Missouri, then flew to California after the voting in Michigan. He has operations in all 13 states that vote that day. Emboldened by victory, McCain decided Tuesday night to air TV ads in northern Virginia in an attempt to win the state's 56 delegates Feb. 29. After losing South Carolina, he had decided to stay out of the state. McCain's main focus, however, will be California. He plans to spend seven of the next 12 days in the state that awards 162 delegates to the March 7 primary winner, sources said. He is counting on his strong showing in New Hampshire to give him a boost in New England states that day. With McCain now setting the agenda, Bush has decided to cancel a Virginia trip early next week to to head to Washington state instead, keeping pace with McCain, who will be there Wednesday. A senior adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bush also would increase his criticisms of McCain, starting with complaints that the senator's campaign accused him of anti-Catholic bias. Look for Bush and his TV ads to call into question McCain's "Washington-style" attacks, the aide said. Michigan was fertile ground for McCain's populist pitch; the state supported the independent presidential bid of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 and gave Ross Perot 19 percent of its vote in the 1992 election. Pat Buchanan's anti-trade populism earned him a third of the vote in the 1996 GOP primary. McCain was the only candidate who visited Arizona after the South Carolina vote, arriving on the eve of the election. In Michigan, McCain pointed to a below-the-radar effort by conservative groups working against him. Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson taped telephone calls to voters implying that former Sen. Warren Rudman, McCain's national campaign chairman, was "a vicious bigot." Bush said his campaign had nothing to do with Robertson's calls. The Texan accused McCain's campaign of using calls to falsely paint him as anti-Catholic for visiting staunchly conservative Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Bush's supporters also suggested Democrats were organizing to vote for McCain, hoping to throw the GOP race into turmoil. Steve Comben, who voted for Bush at his Livonia precinct in suburban Detroit, said the negative tactics didn't influence his vote. "People say they don't like it, but it works. People don't like wrestling, but they watch it," he said.