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Republican John McCain triumphed over Mitt Romney in a close race in Florida on Tuesday, a vital win that gives him an important edge going into next week when nearly half the country votes.

Rudy Giuliani was trailing badly, a huge blow for the former New York mayor.

Giuliani had staked his entire candidacy on Florida with a risky strategy of skipping early states in the nomination battle.

Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister, also fared poorly but said he wasn’t giving up before more than 20 states vote next Tuesday. “We like to believe we’re just getting started,” he said.

McCain was attracting 36 per cent of the vote, compared with 31 per cent for Romney,15 per cent for Giuliani and 14 per cent for Huckabee.

Nearly half of voters, 47 per cent, listed their top issue as the economy and split their support between the two top contenders.

Terrorism, the Iraq war - McCain territory-and immigration followed in importance.

More than one-third of voters were 65 or older. They flocked to the 71-year-old maverick McCain, who also attracted Hispanics and moderates.

With only registered Republicans allowed to vote, it was a chance to prove McCain has squelched some major doubts about his candidacy in the party base, and he wasn’t doing too badly among conservatives.

More of those went to Romney, though, as well as voters opposed to abortion and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

With big wins already in New Hampshire and South Carolina, the Florida results cemented McCain as the clear front-runner to take on the Democratic nominee in the race for the White House this fall.

Romney, a multimillionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor, had badly wanted to show he can win a highly-contested fight after victories in his home state of Michigan and two others where he alone campaigned.

Democrats, who are having troubles of their own trying to decide between their two front-runners, also voted in Florida and chose Hillary Clinton by a wide margin, especially among Latino voters and whites.

But no delegates for the party’s national convention were to be awarded to either Clinton or Barack Obama because party officials were angry the state ignored its rules and moved up the vote date.

Clinton, who was walloped by Obama in South Carolina last week, played the outcome as a huge win with a visit to thank supporters.

“I’m thrilled to have this vote of confidence,” said Clinton, who is trying to get the delegates reinstated.

She was attracting about 50 per cent support, compared with about 30 per cent for Obama.

Analysts watching to see if a racial divide has opened up since the southern vote noted Clinton got only a small share of blacks.

Obama attracted three-fourths of blacks and one-fourth of the white vote, signalling a potential problem in predominantly white states yet to vote .

The McCain-Romney rivalry, meantime, got testy in the waning days of the Florida campaign.

McCain, a Vietnam War hero, drew attention to Romney’s flip-flops on key social issues like abortion for political advantage, while stressing his own military background and his ability to lead Americans safely through an age of radical Islamic extremism.

Romney portrayed McCain as a country bumpkin when it comes to economics, sending out a top 10 list of reasons why McCain still needs to be educated on the subject.

Romney’s campaign also posted 10 instances of McCain venting his legendary temper and accused him of being soft on immigration and a friend of the Clintons.

McCain, who was endorsed by Florida’s popular governor, Charlie Crist, dismissed the verbal sparring with Romney, saying “it looks like a Sunday school picnic compared to what the Democrats have been doing.”

Obama attributed his landslide victory over Clinton last week in part to barbs from her husband Bill that seemed to many like an attempt to play the race card and portray the African-American candidate as having limited appeal outside black voters.

The nasty tone from the Clinton camp seemed to be the last straw for iconic, influential Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, who endorsed Obama this week as a worthy successor to his brother, the late president John F. Kennedy.

There were 57 Republican delegates at stake in Florida. The winner needs 1,034.

Precincts Reporting:

5304

Of

6913

76%

Winner	Candidate		Votes	Vote %
Winner	John McCain		588,485	36%
	Mitt Romney		509,586	31%
	Rudy Giuliani		244,171	15%
	Mike Huckabee		218,005	13%
	Ron Paul		52,190	3%
	Fred Thompson		19,755	1%
	Alan Keyes		3,407	0%
	Duncan Hunter		2,396	0%
	Tom Tancredo		1,363	0%

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