March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the Democratic presidential primary in Mississippi, claiming a victory in the last contest before voters in Pennsylvania go to the polls next month.

The victory in Mississippi gives Obama a boost at the start of a six-week break between nominating contests. Obama and rival Hillary Clinton campaigned today in Pennsylvania, where Clinton, a senator from New York, holds a lead in polls before that state's primary on April 22.

``It's just another win in our column, and we are getting more delegates,'' Obama said in a televised interview with CNN from Chicago. He said he is ``confident'' that the party will be unified for the general election.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams released a statement congratulating Obama and said they were moving on to Pennsylvania and the other contests ``around the country.''

With 89 percent of precincts reporting, Obama led with 59 percent of the vote to Clinton's 39 percent. Obama, who's vying to become the first black president in the U.S., was getting nine of 10 votes from blacks, who make up about half of Mississippi's Democratic electorate, according to exit polls cited by the networks. About quarter of white voters cast ballots for Obama.

Clinton, 60, found her candidacy in jeopardy last month as Obama, 46, chalked up 11 primary wins in a row. She came back with victories in the March 4 Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries. Now, she faces a must-win contest in Pennsylvania to keep her campaign alive.

Delegate Race

Mississippi has 33 pledged convention delegates, awarded proportionally based on the popular vote. Before today, Obama had a lead of more than 140 pledged delegates, according to an unofficial estimate by the Associated Press.

Republicans also were holding a primary, though Senator John McCain of Arizona already has won enough delegates to clinch the party's presidential nomination.

Clinton got a sense of how tough Mississippi would be for her during her first appearance in the state on March 6. At a Democratic Party dinner in Canton, she was greeted by dozens of Obama supporters holding signs and chanting his name.

In Columbus, Mississippi, yesterday, Obama's appearance outside a local barbeque restaurant caused a small traffic jam as drivers and pedestrians stopped to snap pictures and shout out cheers of support.

Campaigning in Pennsylvania

By this afternoon, both candidates had already turned their attention to Pennsylvania, which has 158 pledged delegates available. Clinton told a crowd of several thousand at Temple University in Philadelphia that they should think about ``who would you hire'' to do things like end the war in Iraq, face the crisis in the housing market and assure universal health care for Americans.

``I have the greatest respect for my opponent, but I believe that in these times what I am offering, my experience, my qualifications, my understanding of what we need to do is exactly the direction we should be headed,'' Clinton said to cheers from the crowd.

Obama spoke to workers at a wind-turbine plant in Allentown, touting his plan to spur new ``green-collar'' jobs as part of a larger national effort to boost energy independence and clean up the environment

``Green jobs are the jobs of the future,'' Obama said. ``Because they help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil and may just save this planet for our children.''

Ferraro Remarks

A controversy erupted over remarks by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro, a former U.S. representative from New York and the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1984. In an interview with the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, California, Ferraro said Obama has advanced because of his race.

``If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,'' Ferraro was quoted as saying by the newspaper in a story published March 7. ``And if he was a woman he would not be in this position.''

Obama called the statement ``divisive'' in an interview with the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

``I don't think Geraldine Ferraro's comments have any place in our politics or in the Democratic Party,'' Obama told the newspaper. ``I think anybody who understands the history of this country knows they are patently absurd.''

Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said Ferraro's remarks are ``part of an insidious pattern'' on the part of Clinton's campaign. He called on Clinton to remove Ferraro from her finance committee and as a campaign surrogate.

Clinton Disagrees

Clinton distanced herself from the comments.

``I do not agree with that,'' she told the Associated Press in an interview. ``It is regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides, because we've both had that experience, say things that kind of veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this on the issues.''

Ferraro said her remark was taken out of context. She told Fox News that she has said many times that if she weren't a woman she wouldn't have been Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984.

``Does that mean I wasn't qualified to do the job? No,'' she said.

``What I find offensive is that every time someone says something about the campaign they are accused of being racist,'' Ferraro said.

An Obama adviser, Samantha Power, resigned last week after she was quoted in a Scottish newspaper calling Clinton ``a monster.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net; Kristin Jensen in Philadelphia at kjensen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 11, 2008 23:06 EDT