Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman have balmy South Carolina pretty much to themselves these days, as the other Democratic presidential candidates trudge around frozen Iowa.

Clark and Lieberman’s decisions to bypass stumping for Monday’s Iowa caucuses frees them up to concentrate on the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary and the Feb. 3 contest here.

Clark visits Dillon today and will be in Columbia on Monday. Lieberman takes a tour of rural counties on Sunday. No other candidate is expected in the state until after Monday’s quadrennial rite of winter.

“It’s always important when you go to a state and meet the people,” Clark said Wednesday from New Hampshire, the other state he and Lieberman are concentrating on.

But Clark is leaving New Hampshire’s sub-zero high temperatures for South Carolina’s practically shirt-sleeves 55 degrees.

“Folks in the South know that when you care, you show your face; when you care, you visit,” said Meighan Stone, spokeswoman for Clark’s South Carolina campaign. “Visiting South Carolina while the other candidates spend time in Iowa allows Gen. Clark the venue to put out his positive message to the people of South Carolina.”

That’s not to say the other campaigns have packed up and fled north. But the campaigns of Dick Gephardt, Howard Dean and John Edwards are relying on surrogates to get their message across:

• Chip Carter, son of former President Jimmy Carter, was here this week for Dean.

• Edwards’ campaign will be buoyed by a visit from former N.C. Gov. Jim Hunt today, and former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt — the first black student admitted to Clemson University — will stump for Edwards this weekend.

• Gephardt is relying on in-state talent, like U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn and former Gov. Robert McNair, both of whom have endorsed the Missouri congressman.

Edwards’ campaign is not willing to abdicate South Carolina just because the candidate is fighting for ground in Iowa’s 99 counties.

“John Edwards is running a national campaign and believes to succeed in this you do have to run a national campaign and part of that is Iowa,” said Jenni Engebretsen, Edwards spokeswoman here.

Edwards returns to the state Jan. 23, she said, and “he’s also been here 18 times since January of last year. He has been here over and over and over.”

Gephardt’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Alexander, shared a similar sentiment about her candidate.

“We have endorsements and surrogates all over the state, from local elected officials to members of the African-American mayors conference to African-American ministers,” Alexander said. “We have people getting the word out about Gephardt, stumping for Gephardt. Gephardt himself has been here 14 times.

“People of South Carolina know their city council person, know their congressman, know their mayor. To hear those people say, ‘Dick Gephardt is my guy,’ that’s a resounding message.”

But stand-ins are not the same, said Stacie Paxton, S.C. spokeswoman for the Lieberman campaign.

“We’re giving the real thing,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity for Lieberman to bring his message straight to the people.”

And the real thing counts, said College of Charleston political scientist Bill Moore.

“Face-to-face meetings with groups provide you with a type of contact that can provide an impact the way a (TV) commercial cannot,” Moore said.

And surrogates only help if they have the cache to matter, Moore said.

“I’m not sure Jim Hunt will have that much impact on South Carolina,” he said. “A Harvey Gantt might, an Andrew Young (who campaigned here for Clark on Tuesday) might. A Jim Clyburn certainly does.”

Avoiding Iowa made sense for both Lieberman and Clark, said Bruce Ransom, a political scientist at Clemson University.

Lieberman is viewed as the centrist in the field, Ransom said, and South Carolina’s Democratic electorate is viewed as being more responsive to his moderate views.

Clark is a Southerner and a veteran, both of which will help him in South Carolina.

Both can bypass Iowa, Ransom said, “and move to South Carolina with the assumption they can make some hay, and make some noise and demonstrate some successes here.”

The strategy might be working more for Clark than for Lieberman. Recent polls show Clark at or near the front of the pack, while Lieberman usually falls into the middle.

Reach Gould Sheinin at (803) 771-8658 or asheinin@thestate.com