KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: John McCain needs to win some of the primary battles Super Tuesday. He's expected to win most of New England, and he has a chance in New York. Thirteen states, with roughly half the GOP delegates, make up the Super Tuesday Republican contest. New York is among the big prizes. CNN's Jonathan Karl is following the Straight Talk Express this morning and joins us from New York. Hi, Jonathan.</s>JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. New York is absolutely a critical battle ground state on Tuesday, the other big prize besides California. This is a state where, as you mentioned, John McCain is holding a narrow lead in the polls, and he absolutely needs that lead. The Bush folks, the Bush campaign believes that if they can win in California and New York that this race is effectively over, and the McCain campaign acknowledges that they need to pull off a win in one of those two big states. Now, with California a state where only registered Republican votes count for delegates, it's also a state where George Bush is holding a fairly- comfortable lead in the polls. So that becomes -- New York becomes the critical state for John McCain. And John McCain has had a fundraising bonanza in the month of February. It has given him resources that enable him to compete with McCain (ph). In the states of California, New York, as well as Ohio, McCain will actually be, according to his campaign, out-spending Bush on television advertising, the first states he will be able to do that. So it's a very critical state, a lot of resources going in here, and it's getting quite nasty on the ground here. The Bush campaign is running an ad that is accusing McCain of opposing breast cancer research because of a couple of votes he had on the Senate floor. Critical race, dirty race, and it will certainly be a big focus for both candidates until Tuesday. Reporting live from New York, this is Jonathan Karl.
Election 2000: McCain Campaign Focuses on New York in Hopes for Win to Stay Alive