Showing the clear advantages of his front-runner status, Sen. John Kerry remained in Washington to rest Thursday, receiving the news that one-time rival Wesley Clark would endorse him, while the other Democratic contenders campaigned vigorously in Wisconsin before leaving the state to raise much-needed money.
Kerry is to travel Friday to Madison, where Clark is expected to make his endorsement official.
The Wisconsin primary on Tuesday represents one of the last realistic chances for Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to derail Kerry, the winner of 12 of 14 contests as Democrats seek a presidential nominee.
Clark had one of the other victories, in the Oklahoma primary, while Edwards won in his native South Carolina.
The stakes are particularly high for Edwards, who many in the Democratic Party see as having a far better chance than Dean of overtaking Kerry–even though they concede that Edwards’ chances are slender.
In Milwaukee, Edwards again spoke to voters about what quickly is becoming the new core of his campaign speech: the loss of American jobs to other nations as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The senator will meet Friday with soon-to-be-unemployed factory workers, a portion of nearly 500 people who will be affected when an auto plant shifts production from Milwaukee to Mexico next year.
“We have to have a president who will fight for their jobs,” Edwards said Thursday. “I mean, this is very personal for me. I grew up in a family where my father worked in a mill. I saw what happened when that mill closed, to my own community and to the families who were involved.”
Edwards, who had vowed to campaign in Wisconsin every day until the primary Tuesday, planned to spend partsof Thursday and Friday in California.
He will attend campaign rallies there to send the signal that he intends to stay in the race regardless of the outcome in Wisconsin. He also will tape an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and attend at least one fundraiser.
Edwards is portraying himself as the alternative to Kerry, asking the voters to act “independent-minded.”
“I recognize this is a two-person race between Sen. Kerry and myself,” he told reporters. “I know that I’m the underdog. But I also know that when Wisconsin voters look at me, they’re going to flock to this campaign.”
Further, Edwards is encouraging voters to watch him in a debate Sunday night. His campaign aides believe a strong showing could propel the state’s nearly 18 percent of undecided voters to shift support to him..
“Now that this field is beginning to narrow, there will be more focus on myself and Sen. Kerry in that debate,” Edwards said Wednesday after learning that Kerry had agreed to participate in the 90-minute, televised debate. “I want that debate. I want people to know what the differences are. I want them to know I come from the place that most Wisconsin voters come from–a working-class family.”
Meanwhile, Dean brought his wife, Judy, who like her husband is a physician, back from Vermont for a day of campaigning that included tours of health-care facilities in Oshkosh and Madison and town meetings that gave the candidate a chance to tout his record of providing health care while governor of Vermont.
“What’s really needed is to improve the health of the people of America, and what we really need to do is shift our focus towards real prevention is to prevent this president from having a second term,” Dean told a group of 200 people in the restored Oshkosh Grand Opera.
Flying to Madison, Dean told reporters he didn’t think he was being too harsh in his criticism of Kerry.
“In light of the things that I’ve gone through, I think that would be laughable,” Dean said. He also vowed to continue his campaign regardless of the result in Wisconsin, and said he had no firm plans for his campaign if he loses Tuesday.
“We will not stop the campaign. Other than that, we’re not planning on losing Tuesday,” said Dean, who planned to raise money in Minneapolis.
Making her third campaign trip, Judy Dean said, “I think it’s been a little hard for me because I would have liked to be with him more when things were going really well and when things aren’t going so well.” “I said this before,” she said. “I remain really, really proud of what he’s doing, what he continues to do.”
