The three top presidential contenders - Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain - will all make stops in Seattle on Thursday and Friday as Washington becomes a key state in the road to the parties' nominations.

Clinton has scheduled a Seattle campaign event in advance of the Democratic caucuses on Saturday.

Her campaign says the former first lady will headline a public rally at 8 p.m. Thursday at Pier 30 on the Seattle waterfront. Party officials say appearances in Spokane and Tacoma also are possible.

The Obama campaign says it will hold a rally at 11 a.m. on Friday at Key Arena. The event is open to the public, and Michelle Obama will campaign for him Friday in Spokane.

And McCain is scheduled to arrive at Boeing Field at 3:50 p.m. on Friday. He plans to meet supporters at The Westin Hotel in downtown Seattle on Friday at 6 p.m.

Janet Huckabee, wife of GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, will speak at a campaign rally at noon Friday at Northwest University in Kirkland.

On Tuesday's busiest primary night in history, Clinton and Obama were separated by 26 delegates, with 139 yet to be allocated. McCain seized control of the GOP nomination on Super Tuesday, and his closest competitor, Mitt Romney, dropped out of the race on Thursday.

Overall, that left Clinton with 1,045, more than half of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination. Obama was right behind with 960.

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama claimed victory on Super Tuesday, saying he had won more states than the former first lady for the day and would wind up with more delegates by the time all were tallied.

He bluntly took issue with the suggestion that he, more than she, could be brought down by Swift Boat-style criticism in the fall campaign.

"I have to just respond by saying that the Clinton research operation is about as good as anybody's out there," he said.

"I assure you that having engaged in a contest against them for the last year that they've pulled out all the stops. And you know I think what is absolutely true is whoever the Democratic nominee is the Republicans will go after them. The notion that somehow Senator Clinton is going to be immune from attack or there's not a whole dump truck they can't back up in a match between her and John McCain is just not true."

He said he would be campaigning in all the states in the next round of primaries and caucuses.

Clinton said she would contest Obama everywhere, although senior aides conceded Obama would have more to spend on ads.

"We will have funds to compete," Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, told reporters in a conference call. "But we're likely to be outspent again."

A few hours later, Howard Wolfson, the campaign's communications director, said the senator had loaned money to her campaign late last month.

Officials with both campaigns have said Obama raised $32 million in January and Clinton $13.5 million, a significant gap between the two that allowed Obama to place ads in virtually every Super Tuesday state and get a head start on advertising for the next primaries and caucuses.