US Democratic presidential campaign goes national

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 29, 2004

US Democratic presidential campaign goes national

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After early testing of candidates' strength and weakness in Iowa and New Hampshire, the US Democratic presidential campaign unfolded nationally Wednesday as seven candidates started to compete on a much wider stage for the next round of primaries.

Seven states in the South and West will hold primaries or caucuses Tuesday with a total of 269 pledged delegates up for grabs. The states are Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma, SouthCarolina, New Mexico and North Dakota.

The stage setting is significantly different from the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Instead of living-room to living-room campaigns, the candidates will have to reach out to audiences widely spread both geographically and demographically.

The next round of primaries and caucuses is believed to be the real test for all the candidates since most of them have not seriously campaigned in those states and most of the states have no geographic vicinity to any of the candidates.

With the huge momentum built upon his back-to-back victory in Iowa and New Hampshire, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry started on Wednesday a cross-country campaign blitz designed to solidify his standing, airing political ads in all the seven states.

He first flew to Missouri, a state with most delegates at stakeamong the seven states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 3. All the 74 delegates in the state are up for grabs after the withdrawal of home state Congressman Dick Gephardt from the race following a distant fourth finish in the Iowa caucuses last week.

At a rally at St. Louis Community College, Kerry lashed out at President George W. Bush for his handling of the Iraq war and his policies over health care and job creation.

"We will make this clear all across the country," he said. "Theone person in the United States of America who deserves to be laidoff is George W. Bush."

Adding to his momentum, Kerry picked up the endorsements of Democratic Governor Tom Vilsack and two former senators in Missouri.

The fourth-term senator won 39 percent of the votes in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, compared with 26 percent for former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, 12 percent each for retired Army General Wesley Clark and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and 9 percent for Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

"The test of running for president is a long one, and it's a tough one, so I expect to be tough all the way, and I expect to compete with the same underdog mentality," Kerry told reporters before heading for Missouri.

Leading various polls since last summer in both Iowa and New Hampshire only to face devastating defeats in the two states, Deanregrouped his team on Wednesday in his home state of Vermont in hope of reviving his foundering campaign.

Dean named Roy Neel, a longtime friend of former Vice PresidentAl Gore, as his campaign chief, to help manage day-to-day decisionmaking. Gore announced his endorsement of Dean last month.

Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, who was credited with bringing Dean from an unknown governor in a tiny state to the front-runner status for most of the past year by using Internet campaigning, was offered a new position in the campaign, but he opted to resign.

"You're going to see a leaner, meaner organization," Dean told reporters on a conference call. "It's not going to be a front-runner's campaign. It's going to be a long war of attrition. What we need is decision making that's centralized."

The shake-up came at a critical time for the Dean campaign. Once with more money than any other Democratic rival, Dean may be facing financial problems.

It was reported that Dean has asked his entire staff of about 500 to skip their paychecks for two weeks. And campaign officials said they were only confident of having enough money to compete through next week.

Dean has spent nearly 6 million dollars in ads in Iowa and New Hampshire since June, investing more heavily than any of his rivals. The ads had greatly helped in building his popularity overthe summer and fall, but his popularity was slowly chipped away byattacks from rivals. He finished a humiliating third place in Iowa.

Edwards on Wednesday returned to South Carolina, a state where he was born and which he must win if he wants to keep his campaignalive. The North Carolina senator scored a strong second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses but his lukewarm performance in New Hampshire put his campaign under test.

Edwards and Clark are the only Democratic candidates from the South, which has traditionally voted for Republicans. On Wednesday,Edwards stressed his Southern roots on his campaign trip to South Carolina.

"I was born in South Carolina, I have family in South Carolina,and I have my roots in South Carolina," he told supporters at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. "The South is not George Bush's backyard. It is my backyard and I will beat George Bush."

But Edwards suffered a setback as Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a leader in the African-American community, announced his intention of endorsing Kerry. About 40 percent of voters in South Carolina are African Americans.

Clark headed to Oklahoma, where polls showed he has a slight lead, on Wednesday and scheduled events in Missouri, New Mexico and Arizona in the next few days.

The retired general skipped Iowa to devote his resources to NewHampshire hoping for a second-place finish. But the disappointing result showed his strategy did not work.

Clark was still enthusiastic, however, about his campaign. "We're heading South and we're heading West and we're not slowing downuntil the final buzzer sounds," he told supporters.

Lieberman, who also skipped the Iowa only to see his campaign put in peril by a distant fifth finish in New Hampshire, vowed to continue his long-shot campaign. He went to Oklahoma to tout his health care plan, which he said would cost less than those of his rivals.

Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton are also staying on the campaign trail after their poor performance in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

Source: Xinhua

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