SENATOR Robert Dole, who now appears nearly certain to capture the Republican Party's presidential nomination, scored an impressive victory in Florida in Tuesday's primary, despite indications that his support remains soft in much of the state.
Most of Florida's voting precincts reported that Mr Dole had taken 56 per cent of the more than 850,000 votes cast.
Mr Steve Forbes, the magazine publisher who is campaigning largely on a platform of tax reform, made a better showing in Florida than in the other six states which voted on Tuesday, taking 21 per cent of the vote to come in second. In the other "Super Tuesday" primary states she was relegated to third place, behind the conservative political commentator, Mr Patrick Buchanan.
Mr Buchanan trailed third here on Tuesday, with only 19 per cent of the vote.
Mr Dole carried all 23 of the state's congressional districts, winning all 98 of Florida's delegates to the Republican national convention. Florida awards three delegates to the winner in each congressional district with the remainder going to the candidate who wins statewide.
Mr Dole now has nearly three quarters of the 1996 delegates he needs to secure the nomination.
Mr Dole won a convincing victory throughout the state, losing to Mr Buchanan only in two tiny counties near Florida's border with Alabama. In both cases, Mr Buchanan carried the county by a single vote.
Efforts by both Mr Forbes and Mr Buchanan to woo Miami's staunchly anti communist Cuban exile community failed miserably. In heavily Cuban Dade County - essentially Miami and its southern suburbs - Mr Dole took 80 per cent of the vote. Only 28 per cent of Florida's registered Republican voters turned out. Exit polls showed Mr Dole's support to be broad but relatively thin. According to a Miami Herald poll, three of every 10 Dole voters said they believed he would lose to President Clinton in November.
Florida has voted Republican in every presidential election but one since 1972. Still, Mr Clinton believes that he can carry the state (though he failed to do so in 1992) on the strength of the large number of retired voters who live there.
Deborah Zabarenko writes from Washington:
Mr Dole was back in Washington yesterday, pushing for Republican unity to defeat Mr Clinton in November. But Mr Buchanan indicated he would stay in the race until the Republican convention in August, despite Mr Dote's seemingly insurmountable lead.
After winning in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Oregon, Mr Dote now has more than two thirds of the 996 delegates he needs for his party's nomination.
It was a foregone conclusion that Mr Clinton would clinch the Democrats' nomination on Tuesday. Mr Clinton, who has yet to formally declare his candidacy, has had no serious opposition and has won every single delegate to the party's convention so far. After Tuesday's seven primaries, he passed the 2,142 delegates needed for nomination by the convention's 4,283 delegates.