Democratic campaign poised to shift to South Carolina

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Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the New Hampshire front-runner, was moving to beef up his campaign apparatus in South Carolina and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a Seneca native, was pressing to advance his position in his home state.

Kerry's staff had been reduced to a skeleton crew after he opted to concentrate on Iowa and New Hampshire. His campaign sought to downplay remarks the candidate made Saturday about the value of the South to the Democratic nominee.

On Saturday, speaking at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Kerry said, "Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South. I think the fight is all over this country."

Kerry isn't writing off South Carolina, spokeswoman Holly Armstrong said Monday, pointing to planned appearances and the addition over the weekend of another half-dozen staff members in Columbia with "more on the way."

He will appear in South Carolina, she said.

But Dick Harpootlian, a former state Democratic Party chairman who is neutral in the primary, told ABC News, "It's the wrong message to be saying at this point. I'm shocked he would be talking about a strategy of avoiding the South."

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton has campaigned almost exclusively at black churches and historically black colleges and universities. African American voters are expected to make up 40 to 50 percent of the turnout and have been heavily wooed by all the candidates.

Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean are pressing their campaigns in South Carolina, as is Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman. U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is sticking in the race, too.

Armstrong said Kerry now has 11 people in South Carolina, as many as U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri had when he dropped out after Iowa and far less than some of the others.

Clark has 55 paid staffers operating out of Columbia and regional offices, an increase of 19 in two weeks. Edwards campaign reported nine, plus others from a post-Iowa influx. The Dean and Lieberman campaigns couldn't be reached for comment, but on Jan. 12 reported 35 and seven staffers, respectively.

Sharpton, who has spent little time in New Hampshire, was to campaign Monday in Columbia, Greenwood and Laurens.

All the candidates will be in Greenville for Thursday's 90-minute nationally televised debate at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts.