While Democrats in seven states counted caucus and primary election votes Tuesday night, supporters of presidential candidates Howard Dean and Wesley Clark pondered the results over beer, soft drinks and chicken wings.

“It’s a nail-biter of an election,” said Rachel Robson, coordinator of the Douglas County Clark meetup group, as she watched the vote tallies from the Oklahoma primary, where the retired Army general and NATO commander was in a tight race with Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Robson was one of about a dozen people from the Clark and Dean groups who gathered in front of a bank of TV sets at Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar, 1012 Mass.

Lauren Sullivan, Dean’s Lawrence coordinator, was hoping the former Vermont governor would have a decent showing that would launch him on the road to recovery from losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“It’s been a rough couple of weeks,” Sullivan said.

Although Kerry went into Tuesday’s election carrying momentum, no one from the Clark and Dean groups was ready to concede the Democratic nomination to him or Edwards.

“His support is strong; his fund-raising is strong,” Sullivan said of Dean. “We’ve got a long way to go before the convention and there’s no reason for us to leave the floor now.”

Kerry’s tough days are still ahead of him, Robson said.

“I think the longer Kerry is the front-runner the more media scrutiny he’s going to get,” Robson said. “Clark has already been under the microscope the way Dean has.”

Momentum building for front-runner Kerry Clark for President Howard Dean for America John Kerry for President Dennis Kucinich for President More about the presidential race

Craig Sundell spent the past few days calling Oklahomans to gain their support for Clark. He was sure Clark would win that state.

“There are a lot of military installations in Oklahoma,” Sundell said. “People in Oklahoma know they are looking at someone who has a middle-class background like them.”

Sullivan hoped the furor over Dean’s tirade after the Iowa caucuses had run its course. She was in Des Moines that night and saw the candidate’s exuberance first-hand.

“It was a nonevent,” she said. “He was reacting to 3,000 screaming people.”

Sullivan said she blamed the media and its constant focus on the Dean rant for costing him the New Hampshire primary.

As the vote counts continued to come in, Sundell and Robson joked about President Bush and his lack of knowledge and support for science.

“He doesn’t believe in evolution,” Sundell said. “He thinks the world has only been around for 10,000 years.”

Robson, a Kansas University graduate student studying pathology, helped launch a Web site for scientists favoring Clark, www.scientists.forclark.com. Despite Bush’s recent call for a manned mission to Mars, Robson claimed the Republican president had robbed funding for key science programs.

“I believe the Bush administration has been a complete disaster for science,” Robson said. “He’s going to cut more funding for science programs so we can have a feel-good mission to Mars.”

Watching the election results from home was Joey Sprague, an organizer of a Dennis Kucinich support group. Kucinich was a nonfactor in Tuesday’s elections, but Sprague wasn’t ready for him to pull out of the election process.

“I don’t know if he has a chance, but it’s worth it to keep going,” she said.

The Kucinich group has been working to get Kucinich’s name on the Kansas caucus ballot. A total of 1,000 signatures from registered Democrats throughout the state is needed on a petition.

Sprague didn’t think most people were aware of Kucinich’s stance on issues such as health care, and the need for the United Nations to handle matters in Iraq. She also hoped that other candidates who might drop out would give their delegates to Kucinich.

“If people could only hear him speak,” Sprague said. “I like everything that comes out of his mouth.”