Net Results

Mike Huckabee entered the West Virginia Republican presidential convention with a solid base, as religious conservatives to whom the former Southern Baptist preacher has targeted his strongest appeal are well-represented with the state GOP's ranks.

But it appears some good old-fashioned political horse-trading between the Huckabee camp and supporters of John McCain aided Huckabee in overcoming the 41 percent to 33 percent lead Romney held over him in the first ballot at the convention in West Virginia's capital city of Charleston.

McCain, who did not compete heavily in West Virginia, took 15 percent on the first ballot, finishing ahead of only Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who had 10 percent and was eliminated from contention under the convention's rules. Yet the final tally in the second-ballot vote showed McCain plummeting to 1 percent, while Huckabee shot ahead of Romney by 52 percent to 47 percent -- giving the former Arkansas governor the majority he needed to clinch victory in a winner-take-all contest that netted him the state's 18 at-;large delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention.

The Associated Press, reporting from the scene, said most of the McCain delegates shifted to Huckabee -- preventing Romney, McCain's top rival for the Republican nomination, from claiming victory in the first result among the 21 states holding Super Tuesday Republican primaries and caucuses today.

Huckabee, who scored his first victory since the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses Jan. 3, has recently been engaged in campaign hostilities with Romney. The former Massachusetts governor has publicly suggested that longshot Huckabee drop out of the race in order to allow Romney to galvanize support among Republican conservatives, many of whom continue to express skepticism or outright opposition to McCain despite the latter's emergence as the putative front-runner for the party's presidential nomination. Huckabee has angrily rejected Romney's contention as "arrogant."

Romney, Huckabee and Paul all personally appeared and spoke to the delegates at the West Virginia convention. McCain did not.