Democrats begin final push in New Hampshire

2.25pm


MANCHESTER, N.H. - US Democratic candidates today began their final push for votes in New Hampshire's presidential primary, with Howard Dean promising a comeback and John Kerry earning the endorsement of an influential environmental group.

Three days before Wednesday's contest (NZ time), the candidates spread out across frosty New Hampshire to shake hands, greet diners and take questions at town hall meetings in the traditional face-to-face campaign style favoured in the small state that holds the first US presidential primary.

"We can win this," Dean promised as he walked from house to house in Somersworth, knocking on doors and greeting startled voters as he tried to pump life back into his campaign after a third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

The Dean campaign said it was shifting money and staff into New Hampshire in a late comeback bid, realising a loss in a state where they once led polls by 20 points would be disastrous.

"I think New Hampshire likes a fighter and I think we have a shot," said Dean.

A new Reuters/MSNBC/Zogby three-day tracking poll found Kerry with a 9-point lead on Dean, but on the final day of polling Dean had closed the gap to 4 points, with 13 per cent of voters still undecided.

"There are an enormous number of undecided people still, and people who are not solidly with any candidate and are shopping around," the former Vermont governor told reporters.

New Hampshire is the second contest in the battle to find a Democratic challenger to President Bush, and the race was turned upside down by the results on Monday in Iowa, where Kerry scored a surprise win.

Kerry's campaign has been on a roll since, picking up the endorsement on Saturday in Concord of the environmental lobbying group, the League of Conservation Voters, which promised to help get 36,000 registered environmental voters to the polls for Kerry.

"I hope to put an end to the false argument that America must choose between a growing economy and a clean environment," said Kerry, a US senator from neighbouring Massachusetts who then returned to Manchester for an ice hockey game with former Boston Bruin greats like Ray Bourque and Cam Neely.

Kerry, an avid hockey player, scored several goals and was cheered by supporters in hockey-crazed New Hampshire. The back of his jersey read 'Kerry 04.'

"This is a comeback trail still," Kerry, whose campaign was given up for dead a month ago, told reporters. "I don't take anything for granted."

THE SOUTHERNER AND THE GENERAL

Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina told New Hampshire voters he was the candidate with the best chance to beat Bush. Edwards, who speaks with a Southern accent, asked voters in Gorham, New Hampshire, to tell their friends that "this is the guy who can beat George Bush in the North, the West, the Midwest, and talking like this, in the South."

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, trying to get his campaign moving again after a difficult week, emphasised his character, modest roots in Arkansas and his 34-year military career during a crowded campaign event in Auburn, New Hampshire, reminding voters he was new to politics.

"I'm the only candidate in the race who has not practiced this stuff," Clark said. "I have never run for office but I am a professional leader."

The past few days have not been the smoothest for Clark, who was on the rise in New Hampshire until Kerry caught fire in Iowa and roared past him. Clark has been on the defensive on issues like abortion and his Republican past.

He went on the attack today, hammering Bush for being deceptive over the need for war in Iraq and promising to lead the country into battle only as a last resort.

"If you want to find a president to keep our country out of war, you get a general who has seen them," said Clark, who was wounded in Vietnam and headed the Kosovo bombing campaign as NATO commander.

Clark spokesman Matt Bennett said Clark was aiming for "a respectable showing, fourth or above" in New Hampshire to send him on to the February 3 contests in seven states, including several in the South or Midwest that might be more hospitable territory for Clark.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut had no public events during the day as he observed the Jewish Sabbath, but he and five other Democratic contenders were scheduled to speak at a party dinner in Nashua on tonight.

- REUTERS