Almost all nine of the Democrats looking to win their party's nomination for president have visited a black church in South Carolina.

South Carolina's blacks are an irresistible Democratic block that could make up half the voters in the state's first-in-the-South presidential primary Feb. 3. The candidates are trying to make sure they don't overlook voters like Camille Hodge, 71, retired.

"Give us a reason for us to vote. Encourage us to go out to vote. They gave us nothing," said Hodge, as he lounged in a chair in his house, with walls covered by political posters and photos of Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., former President Clinton and Al Gore.

Hodge, who is still active in the Democratic Party, said the state party took for granted that blacks would vote Democratic in the 2002 election. He's certain South Carolina still would have a Democratic governor -- incumbent Jim Hodges was defeated by current Republican Gov. Mark Sanford in November -- if the party had reached out to blacks.

"If the candidates can come in and address the issues, they may interest enough minorities to come out and vote," said Denmark attorney Evert Comer Jr., 53.

For now, some Democratic candidates are taking the tried-and-true path to the church to reach black voters.

The Rev. Joe Darby, pastor of Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, said he's had contact with all the candidates. "We've got candidates coming out our ears," he said.

U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida all have spoken to congregations at predominantly black churches.

Gephardt has spoken with health workers at a predominantly black church.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has been a regular visitor to black churches, most recently at the Chapel Hill Baptist Church in Santee. Sharpton, one of two black Democratic presidential candidates, reminded the congregation about the struggle for civil rights and the important role for blacks in selecting the next president of the United States.

Other candidates have taken different tacks to reach black voters.

Edwards went to the Penn Center, which runs a number of community outreach programs for island residents. The center began in 1862 as a school for freed slaves after Union forces captured the area early in the Civil War.

Graham and Lieberman both have visited Allen University, South Carolina's oldest historically black college. Former ambassador and Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, the other black candidate, has met with the state branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other black community leaders.

Most of the campaigns have hired black staffers. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has the backing of black New York Congressman Gregory Meeks, who visited supporters throughout South Carolina on Kerry's behalf. He plans to begin a grass-roots campaign in South Carolina next month, Meeks said.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is one of the few candidates who has not had a real presence in South Carolina. The Ohio Democrat has been focusing more of his efforts in Iowa, said campaign spokesman Jeff Cohen.

Back in Denmark, black Democrats like Hodge are watching and waiting. "The party has been taking the base for granted and the end result is losing," he said.

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