Kerry seeks 10-state sweep: Tuesday races could be last hurrah for Edwards
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Both senators were beginning the day in Atlanta, with Edwards of North Carolina visiting a polling place and Kerry of Massachusetts meeting with workers.
Both were then returning to Washington late in the day for Senate votes on gun legislation.
Georgia is one of 10 states holding caucuses and primaries on Tuesday and a Georgia victory is critical to Edwards’ ability to keep going.
After the Senate gun votes, Kerry was to remain in Washington for an election-night party while Edwards was to return to Atlanta to await returns.
Super Tuesday contests in California, New York, Ohio, Georgia, Minnesota, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont provide more than half the 2,162 delegates needed to win the nomination.
Kerry, who has won 18 of the first 20 contests, had 688 delegates going into Super Tuesday to Edwards’ 207. Edwards has won only one state, South Carolina, and that was nearly a month ago.
Edwards pledged to stay in the race “until I’m nominated,” but said in Ohio on Monday that he recognized that, “At some point, I’ve got to start getting more delegates or I’m not going to be the nominee.”
Edwards’ advisers were looking for wins in Ohio, Georgia and Minnesota and enough delegates from New York and California to propel him toward primaries next Tuesday in four Southern states.
But they also recognized that such a strategy was a long shot. And failure by Edwards to win any Tuesday races would bring enormous pressure to bear on him from Democratic leaders to step aside.
Kerry hoped to finish Edwards off on Tuesday so he could turn his full attention to President Bush and the general election.
In an interview Monday with an Albany, Ga., television station, Kerry contrasted his experience as a 19-year Senate veteran with Edwards’ short career. A millionaire trial lawyer, Edwards was elected to the Senate in 1998 after no previous political experience and is still in his first term.
“I have a stronger, longer, broader, deeper record than John Edwards,” Kerry told WALB-TV. “John Edwards I respect — he’s been in the Senate since 1999. But there is no showing that he has a stronger record than I do with respect to putting people back to work and what we need to do to show the leadership of the future.”
Regardless of Tuesday’s results, Bush plans to begin a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign Thursday to reverse his downward trend in public opinion polls.
Bush’s approval ratings have dropped steeply — down into the low 40s in some polls — after months of criticism by Democrats out to take his job.
Edwards told reporters on Friday that he’s seen a surge in popularity at the last minute in states where he has spent a lot of time campaigning. He cited strong second place finishes in Iowa and Wisconsin.
But on Monday Edwards faced signs of political distress, drawing paltry crowds at rallies in three Ohio cities, and even a modest turnout Monday night at a free Hootie and the Blowfish rock concert in Macon.
Edwards seemed subdued and indifferent at some stops, stumbling over a signature line in his stump speech and not waving and pumping his arms as he usually does.