Jockeying To Be The Un-Kerry

With John Kerry leading in polls, his Democratic rivals are hoping Tuesday's primaries in Tennessee and Virginia help narrow the field to a single candidate who can capture all opposition to the frontrunner.

Pre-primary polls made Kerry the favorite in both states, and he hoped to show strength in the South following last week's election defeats in South Carolina and Oklahoma.

The far-away front-runner in the Democratic race, Kerry has won 10 of 12 primaries and caucuses to date, and hoped for additional success Tuesday in the Southern battlegrounds of Virginia and Tennessee.

His rivals, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. John Edwards and Howard Dean, face other imperatives as they struggle to slow Kerry's momentum.

Polls showed Kerry well ahead in both states voting Tuesday.
Kerry led an American Research Group poll of 600 Tennessee voters by 32 percent to Edwards 21 percent and Clark's 20 percent. Dean had 8 percent.

In Virginia, an ARG survey of 600 voters had 35 percent for Kerry, 22 percent for Edwards and 17 percent for Clark. Dean was at 9 percent. Both polls had four percentage-point margins of error.

Aides to both Clark and Edwards said they expect their candidates to lose Virginia and Tennessee, even though both had earlier been optimistic about winning in their home region. Both were hoping strong showings would eliminate the other and turn the race into a two-man contest with Kerry.

"You've got a choice in this race. You've got a front-runner, you've got a good lawyer and you've got an underdog. I'm the underdog," Clark said Monday in Tennessee, eager to draw a contrast between himself and his Democratic rivals.

Edwards, a successful trial lawyer before entering politics, told reporters he intends to remain in the presidential race regardless of the outcome of the day's primaries.

"What we have been preparing for the entire time is a nomination process that's going to go on well into March," he said after a speech in Norfolk, Virginia "We're prepared for that, we have the resources to do that, and most importantly, we have a message that obviously resonates when voters hear it."

Dean also told supporters he wanted to fight on. He is not competing in Virginia or Tennessee, reports CBS News Early Show National Correspondent Thalia Assuras, instead focusing on next week's contest in Wisconsin.

"The media claims this contest is over. They say your voice and your vote don't count. They expect you to rubber stamp the choice of others. But you don't have to listen to them," Dean told an audience of about 300 at a downtown Madison, Wis. hotel.

Dean began a two-day tour and an aggressive advertising campaign in Wisconsin, a state he told supporters last week he must win on Feb. 17 to keep his candidacy alive.

In a turnabout, the former Vermont governor said he intends to stay in the presidential race regardless of the outcome in Wisconsin. "I've just changed my mind," he said in an interview with Wisconsin television reporters.

But in another form of turnabout, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees officially reversed course and withdrew its support of Dean. The 1.5 million-member AFSCME, which had met with Dean on Saturday, said it was turning its efforts to the fall campaign and unifying the Democratic Party.

Another union that backed Dean, the Service Employees International, said it was still in his corner — at least until Wisconsin. Polls now show Kerry well ahead in that state.

Tuesday's primaries offered 151 delegates and a chance for Kerry to extend his lead. He had 462 delegates in a CBS News count, Dean had 219, Edwards 136 and Clark 96. Rev. Al Sharpton had 12 and Dennis Kucinich 2. It takes 2,162 to win the nomination.

While Dean, Edwards and Clark hope to stop Kerry's rush toward the nomination, the Massachusetts senator is making plans for a general election race.

An official close to Kerry, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Kerry plans to tap into a $15 million fund the Democratic National Committee has set aside to help the nominee get off to a quick start.

Kerry plans to use the money to run television commercials in an attempt to counter ads the Bush re-election campaign is expected to run, this official said. Republicans are expected to begin running ads as soon as the Democratic race is settled.

On Monday, Kerry sparred with President Bush over the economy.

"This president has the worst jobs record of the last 11 presidents combined," the Massachusetts senator said Monday, campaigning in advance of elections in Virginia and Tennessee. "He has lost over 3 million jobs."

Before an audience in Roanoke, Va., Kerry scorned a White House economic report released earlier in the day that predicted the economy would grow by 4 percent and create 2.6 million new jobs this year.

"I've got a feeling this report was prepared by the same people who brought us the intelligence on Iraq," Kerry said, citing job losses of more than 2 million since Mr. Bush took office.

Mr. Bush, his poll numbers slipping, on Monday unleashed a campaign-style attack on Democrats on the issue of taxes.

"There are some in Washington that are going to say, 'Let's not make the tax cuts permanent.' That means he's going to raise your taxes," he said on the 15th visit to Missouri of his presidency.

"When you hear people say, 'We're not going to make this permanent,' that means tax increase," Mr. Bush added.

Kerry favors repealing the tax cuts that apply to individuals earning more than $200,000. An aide, Stephanie Cutter, said the senator supports a permanent extension of middle class tax cuts that Congress enacted in recent years, including measures that helped taxpayers with children as well as many married couples.