Filing for the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary opened Friday, and the first to file was U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Bernice Scott, Richland County Council chairwoman, presented the papers and a $2,500 check at state party headquarters.

“South Carolina is an important stop on the road to the presidency, and John Kerry is fighting for every vote in this state,” she said.

Kerry had previously qualified for ballots in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

Candidates have a choice of paying $2,500 or submitting the signatures of 3,000 registered voters to get their names on the S.C. ballot.

• Root, root, rooting for the home team (This article contains several news items)

At the intersection of football and politics, Democrat Wesley Clark knows where his allegiance lies — with the New England Patriots, whose fan base extends into first-in-the-nation primary state New Hampshire.

In a 30-second TV commercial created specifically for Saturday’s NFL game between the Patriots and the New York Jets, Clark wears a Patriots sweatshirt and flips a football as he likens running the country to playing sports.

“You have to be strong on defense and you also have to be strong on offense. And having a heck of a quarterback doesn’t hurt either,” Clark says with a grin in the ad.

• Lieberman: Dean divides Democrats (This article contains several news items)

Joe Lieberman warned Friday against replacing “one divisive leader with another divisive leader” — a swipe at both President Bush and the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s nomination, Howard Dean.

Voters in 2000 were almost evenly divided between Bush and the Democratic ticket of former Vice President Al Gore and Lieberman. Bush eventually prevailed in one of the closest presidential elections in history.

Lieberman contended that Dean had criticized President Clinton’s economic record in a domestic speech Thursday. Advisers for Wesley Clark also called on Dean to explain whether he indeed wants to move the party’s economic policies away from those of the Clinton administration.

Dean referred Thursday to a State of the Union address by the former president: “While Bill Clinton said that the era of big government is over, I think we have to enter a new era for the Democratic Party, not one where we join Republicans and aim simply to limit the damage they inflict on working families.”

Dean has denied that he intended the remark as criticism of the former president.

• On the stump in S.C. (This article contains several news items)

Here are the S.C. campaign schedules for the Democratic presidential candidates:

WESLEY CLARK

• In Columbia at the state Democratic Party headquarters at 2 p.m. Sunday to campaign with former Ambassador Andrew Young and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y.

From Staff and Wire Reports