Obama wins in WA, NE, and LA

BATON ROUGE, LA Sixty-seven Democratic delegates will be awarded mainly on the proportion of vote received by the candidates. That makes it unlikely the delegates awarded to each would be clear Saturday night. [Obama wins caucuses in Washington and Nebraska, too]

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee led John McCain in Louisiana's Republican contest. Twenty delegates are at stake in that competition. But its results carried less weight, since McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination earlier this week, when his main rival, Mitt Romney, suspended his campaign.

Huckabee was leading with 48 percent of the vote to McCain's 38 percent, with nearly half of total precincts reporting.

However, the 20 Republican delegates only are committed if a GOP candidate gets 50 percent or more of the primary vote. Another 27 delegates on the Republican side aren't committed no matter the outcome of the primary election.

The leading Republican contenders were absent on Louisiana's political scene, but the Democrats gave some attention to the state.

Obama spoke in New Orleans on Thursday and mounted a TV and radio ad campaign. Former President Bill Clinton made a Friday swing through the state to stump for his wife, whose campaign ran radio ads in the state.