Kerry's Rivals Pick Their Spots

Rivals to Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry are fanning across the country searching for support in upcoming contests that can keep them competitive against the seven-state winner.

Wesley Clark and John Edwards skipped campaigning for the weekend contests in Michigan, Maine and Washington state, sticking instead to their southern roots with plans to travel Thursday to states that vote on Tuesday.

Clark takes a bus tour of Tennessee while Edwards will travel from Memphis to Virginia.

Howard Dean plans to campaign in Michigan, but has acknowledged that he probably can't win there in Saturday's caucuses. But he hopes to pick up enough delegates to keep him in the race.
All the candidates are pointing to a Feb. 17 showdown in Wisconsin, which Dean has targeted for an all-out attempt to block Kerry.

But the odds are with Kerry, who has the most money and allies.

"Without money, you can't have the troops. Without troops, you can't compete. How can you compete with a guy who can write himself a check for ads in California?" said Michigan pollster Ed Sarpolus.

Clark, Edwards and Dean hope to rise out of Wisconsin as the only alternative to Kerry when the race turns to contests in California, New York and eight other "Super Tuesday" states March 2.

Two officials close to Clark, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the retired Army general considered dropping out of the race Tuesday night after scoring a single victory, a nail-biter in Oklahoma. They said his wife, Gert, helped talk him into staying in the race against the advice of some backers.

In another sign of trouble, Clark's staff agreed to a pay freeze to pay for television ads.

The hopes of Edwards, Clark and Dean hinged on two matters that were out of their control — Kerry's future performance on the campaign trail and his past.

Kerry won five states and the lion's share of the delegates Tuesday, taking command of the race. Of the 269 delegates up for grabs, Kerry won 144, Edwards 66, Clark 50, Dean seven and Al Sharpton two. Kerry earlier had won Iowa and New Hampshire, giving him seven victories in the nine contests held so far.

While hoping he will slip up, foes also are pushing media reports about the Massachusetts senator's ties to special interests and lobbyists.

The Associated Press reports that documents show Kerry intervened in the Senate to keep open a loophole that had allowed a major insurer to divert millions of federal dollars from the nation's most expensive construction project, Boston's "Big Dig." Kerry then received tens of thousand of dollars in donations from the company, American International Group, during the next two years.

"If we're going to have a president who's not a Washington insider, who knows the changes that need to take place in Washington to change America, I need to be the president," Edwards told CNN on Wednesday, the day after he won South Carolina to keep his candidacy alive.

Dean suggested that "it'll be more of the same" if Kerry replaces Mr. Bush in the White House. Clark criticized both Kerry and Edwards, faulting them for complaining about White House policies that they had backed in the Senate.

Michigan and Washington state hold caucuses Saturday, and Maine comes a day later for a total of 230 pledged delegates — nearly as many that were at stake Tuesday.

Clark and Edwards do not plan to visit the states. Their strategists, focused on Tuesday's must-win Southern races, believe that Kerry will dominate the weekend contests.

In Michigan, where 128 delegates are at stake, polls show Kerry leading Edwards and Dean by more than 40 percentage points. He also has the endorsement of Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

There are no public polls in Washington state and Maine, but strategists for all four campaigns said Kerry should win easily. Kerry's internal polls show him safely leading in both states, sources close to the senator said.

Dean's strategists hold out a glimmer of hope because Washington has a history of backing underdogs and Maine has a small, unpredictable Democratic voting base.

Confident of victory, Kerry opted not to advertise in the weekend states, though he will travel to them. Dean had no choice; he is short on money and is saving his resources for Wisconsin. And yet, to the dismay of his senior advisers, Dean raised expectations Wednesday.

"We are going to win the Washington caucuses," he said in Seattle.

Looking ahead to Wisconsin, Edwards and Clark decided Wednesday to air ads in the state.

Kerry hopes to knock one or both of them out of the race next week, thus he decided to air ads in Tennessee, Virginia and the District of Columbia, an expensive TV market that reaches into heavily Democratic northern Virginia. Clark and Edwards are buying ads in Virginia and Tennessee, but not in the critical northern Virginia market.

Meanwhile, the campaign for the hearts and minds of America's late-night television viewers continued as Edwards became the fifth Democratic presidential candidate to appear on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman.

He read a list of the top ten things never said by a presidential candidate. No. 3 was: "Lady, that is one ugly baby."