Kerry picks up three more victories

Dennis Kucinich won his first delegates with a second-place finish in Hawaii.
COMBINED DISPATCHES
CLEVELAND -- Fresh from three more easy victories in the Democratic presidential race, John Kerry looked to a fight with President Bush over jobs lost to foreign countries.
Kerry defeated Sen. John Edwards by large margins in Utah and Idaho, and also won in Hawaii, where Edwards ran third. That gave Kerry 18 wins in 20 contests.
The two leading candidates bypassed the three states to focus on the huge delegate prizes at stake when 10 states vote next week on Super Tuesday.
Kerry was spending today in Ohio and Minnesota, and was to launch a new campaign ad in the Buckeye State in which he describes Bush's economic policy as "an astonishing failure" and promises to protect U.S. jobs. The commercial, which also was to run in upstate New York, was meant to soften criticism of Kerry's vote for a free-trade pact as he campaigns in states that have been hit hard by job losses.
Edwards was campaigning across California.
Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich finished in single digits in Idaho and Utah but ran second in Hawaii.
Good turnout
"Thank you, Utah," Kerry said in Cleveland. "With outstanding turnout, tonight you've shown that Democrats in Utah are alive and well and ready to kick George W. Bush out of the White House."
Officials printed 5,000 extra ballots in Salt Lake City to accommodate the demand. "Three blocks from Temple Square and there's a giant line of Democrats," said Blake Sarlow, waiting to vote. "It's the craziest thing."
Counting returns from Tuesday's contests, Kerry's lead in the Democratic delegate chase swelled to 663 in the Associated Press tally, with Edwards at 199, Al Sharpton 16 and Kucinich eight. Nomination requires 2,162 delegates.
A total of 61 pledged delegates were at stake in the night's races. Of the long-shot hopefuls, Sharpton failed to win any delegates, though Kucinich finally pocketed his first pledged delegates, winning six in Hawaii.
His options running short, Edwards looked to Georgia, Ohio and upstate portions of New York to slow Kerry's rush toward the nomination.
The North Carolina senator has been appealing to voters in communities that have suffered job losses by criticizing Kerry's support for free trade. But both Democratic candidates have put the bulk of the blame for unemployment on Bush.
Seeking Dean's support
Meanwhile, Edwards has been persistently wooing Howard Dean, hoping the man who once dominated the contest but ended his presidential bid last week will give him his backing.
Since Dean dropped out, Edwards has called him several times, and Edwards' aides have been reaching out to advisers to the former Vermont governor.
"I want your help; I want your support," Edwards said he told Dean. The North Carolina senator then laughed and said: "It's not rocket science."
The backing of Dean could help Edwards in the two largest states among 10 that hold primaries or caucuses Tuesday -- California and New York. Polls this week have shown Edwards far behind Kerry in both, but Dean had a combined volunteer network of 170,000 people in the two states.
Dean has been noncommittal, although aides said he admired Edwards and got along well with him. Before he withdrew from the race, Dean said he believed Edwards would make a stronger challenger against President Bush than Kerry would.
"He's made no secret that he likes John Edwards a great deal," said Roy Neel, Dean's former campaign chief. "But I don't think there's anything going on right now other than an ongoing conversation."