Democrats take to the polls to pick their man

Senator John Edwards works the crowd as he enters the Seneca Institute Family Life Center Monday. Staff/Patrick Collard e-mail this story Related Related stories: • Last-minute changes meet voters Online extra • Learn more about the candidates to make an informed choice Photo gallery • Edwards goes home

The North Carolina senator and the Rev. Al Sharpton had the state to themselves with the five other contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination campaigning the six other states holding primary elections today.

As they campaigned, the South Carolina Democratic Party rescinded its loyalty oath that had been criticized as a disincentive for independents to vote in the state's primary. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Party Chairman Joe Erwin told a Columbia news conference that the loyalty oath, roundly criticized within the party, would not be required. Critics had warned it would deter independents from voting, but Erwin said it was scrapped because of "confusion" over the oath's intent.

Edwards, a North Carolina senator, campaigned at the College of Charleston, Vorhees College in Denmark and Allen University in Columbia before heading for an evening welcome home party in Seneca, his birthplace.

He trails front-running Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in all other primary states and Edwards has staked his campaign's ability to continue on a victory in South Carolina.

Edwards was met by more than 500 in Seneca, who thronged around the candidate as he slapped and shook hands on his way into an open hall with John Cougar Mellencamp's "Small Town" playing.

Joe Bradley, a lifelong Seneca resident who took it all in from a quiet corner, said he's rooting for the hometown candidate.

"Jobs are bad around here," Bradley said. "He knows how things are."

Jenni Engebretsen, South Carolina press secretary for the Edwards campaign, said he will be in the state all morning, stopping at polling places in Greenville, Clinton and Columbia.

Symbolic site

Sharpton, a civil rights activist from New York and the only remaining black candidate, campaigned at Charleston's old slave market.

He used the site as a jumping off point for an election-eve bus tour to Georgetown, Florence and Columbia.

"We've come a long way from where we had to stand on a block here being assessed to be property to where we can be assessed being president," Sharpton said in front of the building with its wrought-iron gate fronting a cobblestone street.

He said the only way Democrats can win in November is to expand the party in the black community "and use that expanded party base to beat George Bush."

With from 40 percent to 50 percent of today's voters expected to be black, the candidates have focused heavily on black churches, colleges, endorsements and media.

Edwards' theme

Edwards, 50, is a multimillionaire trial lawyer and first-term senator with an up-from-the-bootstraps campaign theme built around ending the influence of lobbyists and corporate America, promoting racial equality and reshaping government policy and programs to benefit the poor, the working poor and middle class.

The remaining five candidates campaigned in the six other states that hold primaries or caucuses today. They had left the state on Friday.

Analysts said the emergence of Missouri as a battleground following the end of the campaign of its favorite son, Dick Gephardt, combined with Kerry's growing leads elsewhere and Edwards staking all on South Carolina, reduced this state's attraction.

Lead growing

Edwards appeared to widen a modest lead over Kerry, the national front-runner.

An overnight Zogby Research poll showed Edwards leading Kerry 30 percent to 25 percent.

Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean were tied for third at 10 percent each. Sharpton registered 7, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, 6 and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, 1 percent.

An American Research Group poll had Edwards and Kerry at 31 percent and 24 percent, respectively. Clark was third at 11 percent, followed by Sharpton, 10; Dean, 9; Lieberman, 4; and Kucinich, 1 percent.

Zogby showed 9 percent undecided, ARG, 10 percent.

Harvey Gantt, the Charleston-born former mayor of Charlotte, traveled Monday with Edwards, telling audiences that Edwards' humble roots allow him to identify with them.

"John Edwards will wake up every morning as president thinking about us," said Gantt, who twice ran for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.

Choreographed arrival

Edwards' arrival at the College of Charleston was carefully choreographed for television. Campaign aides set up two lines of sign-waving supporters down one side of the hall so Edwards could pass between them, smiling and grabbing hands as the camera rolled.

He repeatedly played on his South Carolina roots and that was fine with Caroletta Felder, a 21-year-old business administration major from Walterboro who prefers Edwards "because he's from South Carolina."

Bridget Runyon, 38, a high school guidance counselor, holding her toddler daughter, Maggie, said Edwards "speaks for regular Americans who seem to have been forgotten."

The raspy, cracking voice that plagued him Sunday appeared worse Monday. Edwards was taking an antibiotic and consuming quantities of hot tea and honey between stops, aides said.

At 850-student Vorhees College, Edwards told approximately 250 students and town residents he would create a new image for America.

Shining light

"It used to be that America was this great shining light, a beacon of freedom, democracy and human rights that everyone looked up to," he said.

"Now, we've got the image George Bush has chosen (in which) America has to go it alone, has disrespected the rest of the world. It doesn't have to be that way. We can build an image of America around the world where we're once against looked up to," Edwards said.

At each stop, he held doggedly to his now familiar "Two Americas" stump speech.

Jamelle Buroughs, 22, Vorhees' student body president, wouldn't say where his vote is going, but noted that Edwards "has a winning face" and would be "a good candidate for the people."

Dan Haltiwanger, 30, who practices law in Barnwell, described himself as a politically conservative independent who voted for George W. Bush in 2004, finds appeal in Edwards.

Haltiwanger, seated on the back row, said Edwards' "philosophy seems to be more about helping the little guy move up the economic ladder and Bush seems to be more for those who have already made it."

'Farewell' from GOP

The GOP scheduled a "Farewell Party for Democrats at 6 p.m. today at party headquarters at 1508 Lady St. in Columbia. Hosts will be state Chairman Katon Dawson, national party Chairman Ed Gillespie and House Speaker David Wilkins of Greenville chairman of the state's 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign.

Dawson said, "This will be an inclusive party — no pledge, oath or secret handshake will be required to get in the door."

Downtown Columbia continued to take on the trappings of a major event.

Dean, Clark and Kerry supporters vied for attention from rush hour commuters passing the busy intersection of Main and Gervais streets. Television satellite trucks lined Main and Assembly streets near the Statehouse and white, peaked tents for television broadcast adorned the plaza at the high-rise South Trust Building.

Staff writers Tim Smith and Anna Brutzman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.