The race for the presidential primary in Georgia is shaping up and it is a tight one. A state poll done for the Atlanta Journal Constitution has said that Mike Huckabee heads the Republican field in Georgia's Feb. 5 presidential primary contest, while Democratic rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in a tight race.

The poll states that Huckabee was supported by 31 percent of those surveyed, while Arizona Senator John McCain had 18 percent and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had 14 percent, the poll showed. They were trailed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, with 9 percent, and former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, with 8 percent.

On the Democratic side, Obama, a senator from Illinois, was supported by 36 percent of those surveyed and Clinton, a New York senator, by 33 percent, the newspaper said. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards was third at 14 percent. The poll surveyed 400 likely primary voters from each party Jan. 7-10, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. It was conducted by Washington-based Mason- Dixon Polling & Research.

Georgia will send 103 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver Aug. 25-28 and 72 to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sept. 1-4. It takes 2,026 delegates to secure the Democratic presidential nomination and 1,191 to win the Republican nomination.

The issue of race will play an even bigger role in the Democratic race than the Republican race because blacks tend to vote Democratic. Both minority groups lag behind whites in voter registration. The latest census figures indicate that while 71 percent of voting-eligible whites are registered, the rate drops to 61 percent among blacks and 54 percent for Latinos. The conventional wisdom has been that as the nation's population moves toward a minority majority, its political complexion will become more Democratic. Or, as Bernard N. Grofman, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of California, Irvine, puts it, the "browning of America will result in the bluing."

There is a Hispanic-black divide is already showing in the nomination battle. A California poll by the Field Research Corp. has found Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama had dropped from 25 percentage points in October to just 14 points late last month. However, the same survey gave Clinton a 20-point lead among Latinos, who comprise 14 percent of voters there.
Segura's polling in Nevada showed heavy support for Clinton among likely Latino voters there, too.

It is way too early to say who the nominee for the Democratic Party will be, but it will be a hard-fought battle between Clinton and Obama. I am still sitting on the sidelines until I hear more from Obama on what his plans are for the United States. Simply saying he will help homeowners struggling to meet mortgage payments is not good enough for me. The real question is how will he help.

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