PRESIDENTIAL RACE Edwards, Clark look to end Kerry's winning streak

Primaries and caucuses will be held today in seven states.
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) -- After back-to-back wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. John Kerry was hoping for a sweep in the biggest test yet for Democratic hopefuls, seven states holding primaries or caucuses.
But the race's two Southerners were angling to slow the Massachusetts Democrat's gathering momentum.
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina was counting on a victory in South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary today to keep his own campaign alive.
And retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark of Arkansas hoped for a win in Oklahoma and a respectable showing in both Arizona and New Mexico to propel his campaign into the next round of contests.
One-time front-runner Howard Dean was hoping to put his campaign back on track, but was looking beyond today's contests -- where he is not running any TV ads and where polls show he is badly lagging -- to later races.
Dean's campaign, which has severely cut back on spending, engaged in another round of layoffs, aides said Monday night.
Primaries and caucuses
Today's contests in Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Carolina are expected to help winnow the field of major contenders, perhaps to two.
It is the first round of multistate primaries and caucuses in the contest to find a Democratic nominee to challenge President Bush in the fall elections.
Kerry and Edwards swapped charges Monday as their South Carolina primary fight shaped up as a crucial test. Should Kerry sweep all seven states, his front-runner status could be sealed.
But an Edwards victory in South Carolina -- he had a slight edge in pre-election polls -- could raise questions about Kerry's strength beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.
Edwards remained in South Carolina after wrapping up his campaign at a community rally in Seneca, where he was born, late Monday.
Visits
His voice hoarse and battling a head cold, Edwards canceled a planned visit early this morning to a Greenville polling place. He was to await election returns in Columbia, before heading to Memphis, Tenn., late today.
The other major candidates were scattered around the country.
Kerry and Dean were in Washington state, site of caucuses Saturday.
Sen. Joe Lieberman planned to do some last-minute campaigning in Delaware before returning to the Washington, D.C., area. Clark was in Oklahoma.
Al Sharpton was the only other candidate expected to be in South Carolina.
Clark, Edwards, Dean and Lieberman faced long odds trying to slow Kerry's momentum. Polls showed Kerry with solid leads in Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Delaware and North Dakota. Kerry was within reach of victory in the remaining two states, South Carolina and Oklahoma.
In South Carolina, election officials dropped the requirement for voters to sign an oath binding them to the Democratic Party. Strategists said the decision could increase turnout of black voters, a bloc trending toward Kerry, because oaths carry a stigma of times past when poll taxes and literacy tests were used to keep minorities from voting.
The move could also benefit Edwards, who, according to polls, attracts South Carolina's independent voters, they said.
Criticism
Edwards, who has promised to run a positive campaign, criticized Kerry's acceptance of contributions from lobbyists and his free-trade policies that he claimed cost American jobs, particularly in trade-devastated South Carolina.
Said Kerry: "Edwards says he's the only one who can win states in the South. He can't win his own state." A Kerry aide later said the remark was in response to public polling suggesting Bush would win North Carolina in the November election.
Edwards responded: "I am the only Democratic presidential candidate in the field who has a proven record of being able to win the type of tough states Democrats will need to win in the general election and I will do it again tomorrow."
"This is not the time for on-the-job training," Kerry told South Carolina reporters Monday via satellite from Albuquerque, N.M.
Each of the leading candidates claims to be the only one capable of beating Bush in November.
Republican Party chairman Ed Gillespie, visiting Edwards' home state, said the senator "gets 40 percent of his campaign contributions from trial lawyers at the same time he is blocking tort reform and medical liability reform legislation."
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.