MANCHESTER, N.H. — The Democratic candidates for president barreled into New Hampshire on Tuesday in a frenetic start to a week of campaigning in what has become a topsy-turvy fight for their party's nomination.
With Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt dropping out of the race, the seven remaining Democrats emphatically disdained the frontrunner's mantle, one that Howard Dean wore so uneasily in Iowa.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday January 22, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 34 words Type of Material: Correction
New Hampshire campaigns -- An article in Wednesday's Section A about Democratic presidential candidates campaigning in New Hampshire misidentified Dave Nagle as chairman of the Iowa State Democratic Party. He is a former chairman.
At a wee-hours rally on an airport tarmac in Portsmouth, Dean, who still led the pack here in the most recent polls but has been slipping, declared himself now the "underdog" and showed a more subdued face after a manic concession speech Monday night. When interrupted by two women at a rally later in the day, the former Vermont governor burst into a rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner," the anthem quickly taken up by 200 of his supporters.
Sen. John F. Kerry, coming off a victory in Monday's Iowa caucuses, also moved to stanch post-victory expectations. "While I may be the underdog in this fight, I have not yet begun to fight and show the full measure of what we will do," the Massachusetts senator rasped, his voice addled by laryngitis.
Sen. John Edwards, meanwhile, reported that his second-place Iowa finish had provoked a late-night infusion of $100,000 in campaign contributions overnight. But his growing stature as a national political candidate also brought something he has rarely seen in his yearlong quest for the Democratic presidential nomination: hecklers.
The campaigns had emphatically moved east in other ways, as well, with thousands of campaign workers knocking on doors from the state's border with Canada in the north to its border with Kerry's home state of Massachusetts in the south to its border with Dean's home state of Vermont in the east.
A good showing in Iowa has historically provided the candidates a small "bounce" in the primary here, but often not much more. In elections over the last three decades, the two states have rarely picked the same winner.
Although Kerry and Edwards, of North Carolina, had been rising steadily in Iowa polls as Dean faded, few predicted that Kerry would wallop Dean by nearly 20 points, garnering 37.6% of the delegates to Dean's 17.8%. Edwards took 32% and Gephardt 10.8%.
As recently as 10 days ago, some analysts had anointed Dean the presumptive Democratic nominee. But on Tuesday, the contenders spoke of an open sprint to the Jan. 27 primary.
