(Published January 25‚ 2004)

Here's a look at South Carolina news from the race for the White House last week:

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JOHN EDWARDS - The North Carolina senator was in the state twice last week, rallying supporters with his Southern drawl and touting his South Carolina roots. He told voters that he can win "talking like this, in the South." South Carolina remains a make-or-break state for Edwards, a Seneca native who surprised many observers last week with a second place showing in Iowa.

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JOHN KERRY - Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings endorsed the Massachusetts senator as the man to take the country out of the "economic dumps." Hollings, South Carolina's senior senator and the state's highest-ranking Democrat, said he held off endorsing a candidate to allow the excitement to build for South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary Feb. 3. Hollings' support is expected to boost Kerry's efforts in the state where he officially declared his candidacy in September. Since then, Kerry has been in the state once.

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AL SHARPTON - South Carolina polls show the race is wide open, but the New York preacher has energized voters throughout the state's sizable black population and a recent poll shows him bunched near the top with John Kerry, Wesley Clark and John Edwards. Sharpton has spent much of his time campaigning in South Carolina, where blacks make up about 30 percent of the population and could make up as many as half of the voters in the state's Democratic primary Feb. 3. Sharpton preached at churches Sunday and promised that a vote for him was not a wasted vote since he will take black community concerns to the party's national convention.

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JIM CLYBURN - The six-term congressman said it was easy to endorse Dick Gephardt because of his loyalty to his longtime colleague. Now that Gephardt has withdrawn from the race, however, Clyburn is less certain about which candidate to support. The remaining Democratic presidential candidates each want Clyburn's stamp of approval. As South Carolina's only black congressman, Clyburn could help galvanize support among black voters.

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DICK GEPHARDT - Political experts say John Edwards' campaign to help the middle class may put him in position to pick up many of Gephardt's supporters in South Carolina, including labor groups and black voters. Gephardt, who withdrew from the Democratic presidential race after a fourth-place finish in Iowa, had highlighted his promise of more new jobs and fairer trade during his campaign trips to the state.

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PRIMARY LOGISTICS - The state Democratic Party will get some help from Iowa to tally the paper ballots in South Carolina's first-in-the-South primary next month. The Iowa Democratic Party has offered to loan its staff and the computer software used in that state's caucuses. The computer program was to be converted to South Carolina's precincts and more than 5,000 volunteers have been recruited to help run the polls.