Although U.S. Sen. John Edwards has described the Feb. 3 Democratic primary in South Carolina as essential to his presidential hopes, S.C. voters hardly will see him between now and the last few days of January.

Instead, he will devote almost all his efforts to Iowa and New Hampshire, two states with earlier balloting where polls show his support registering only in single digits.

“What’s really important now is that he do well enough in New Hampshire and Iowa that he shows he can be a national candidate, and then come back down here,” said Jennifer Palmieri, campaign spokeswoman for the N.C. senator.

Three of Edwards’ rivals for the Democratic nomination will be in South Carolina on Tuesday. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman from Connecticut and ex-Vermont Gov. Howard Dean are coming to several S.C. cities.

But after this week, one political expert said he does not expect to see many candidates in South Carolina until at least Jan. 27, the day New Hampshire votes.

“Iowa and New Hampshire will define the alternatives in South Carolina,” said Don Fowler, a Columbia resident and former national Democratic Party chairman. “If you don’t do well in either of those two states, you’re dead here.”

Edwards, a Seneca native, wrapped up a weekend campaign tour of South Carolina on Sunday with a short speech from the pulpit of a black church in downtown Columbia, the Sidney Park Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Saturday, he signed copies of his book, “Four Trials,” in a Charleston bookstore and addressed a Democratic crowd in Brown’s Bar-B-Que restaurant in Kingstree.

Edwards also spoke to sign-waving supporters in front of state Democratic headquarters in Columbia, where he filed papers formally declaring his candidacy.

In most of his weekend appearances, Edwards leaned heavily on his basic stump speech, bashing President Bush for not caring about ordinary working people and ending with his belief that “the son of a mill worker can actually beat the son of a president.”

In Kingstree, Edwards also pledged help for “the forgotten America.” The Pee Dee is a belt of perennially depressed former plantation counties that have failed to share in the economic boom of much of the rest of South Carolina.

Drawing on his roots in tiny Robbins, N.C., where he grew up, Edwards said, “I understand the struggles and the worry that Pee Dee residents are facing day in and day out because I lived it. This isn’t just where I’m from. It’s who I am.”

Edwards is in Iowa today, where his schedule calls for him to spend 12 of the 21 days remaining before the Jan. 19 caucuses. He will be in New Hampshire for seven days. Over the next 3½ weeks, he is scheduled to be in South Carolina for only part of one day, Jan. 7. A location has not yet been announced.

Edwards has made a central theme of his campaign that it is going to take a Southerner to win Southern states against President Bush. He repeatedly has said he must win South Carolina in the primary or quit the race.

To that end, he has made 16 visits to the state this year and spent about $800,000 here — the most time and money of any of the nine Democrats running.

Political observers say Edwards’ grass-roots organization, anchored by a wide network of local Democratic elected officials and party officers, is the best in the state.

That organization was evident Saturday, when enthusiastic crowds of about 100 turned out both in Kingstree and at state Democratic Party headquarters to hear Edwards. Democratic candidate events so far this year have rarely had turnouts of more than 50 or 60 — evidence, party leaders say, that voters have not yet begun to pay attention.

But Edwards has failed to open up the kind of dramatic lead in South Carolina that Dean has in New Hampshire. Even in the S.C. polls most favorable to Edwards, his lead is within the polls’ margin of error.

Other polls show him running as far back as third place. All the polls show the greatest number of likely S.C. voters still have not chosen a candidate.

Former S.C. Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian, who is not backing any candidate, said it is possible that Edwards’ prior investment in South Carolina will still pay off.

“If the story that comes out of New Hampshire is that Dean gets 60 percent of the vote, then there’s no way to stop him here,” Harpootlian said.

“If, on the other hand, the story out of New Hampshire is that Edwards or Clark runs second, then I think Edwards is in great shape,” Harpootlian said.

“I can guaran-damn-tee you that 60 percent of the people who will vote on Feb. 3 haven’t made up their minds, and of the remaining 40 percent, half of them are very soft.”