http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/7203457.htmEdwards battles pack for 3rd place
As neighbors, Dean and Kerry have inside track in New England
MARK JOHNSON
Staff Writer
CONCORD, New Hampshire - U.S. Sen. John Edwards is in a pitched battle for -- third place.
Edwards and six of his fellow Democratic presidential candidates have all but ceded the first two positions in the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary to the guys from next door, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
"Dean is my neighbor," said 23-year-old Katie Smith, a New Hampshire Technical Institute student explaining, in part, why she wouldn't back Edwards after hearing him speak Wednesday.
A similar dynamic is at work in Iowa, where U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt from neighboring Missouri is favored and the liberal politics of the state Democratic Party have given Dean an edge.
The remaining seven candidates apparently are vying to be the best of the rest in the nation's first two contests. Candidates such as Edwards aim to rack up a win shortly thereafter and stay in the race.
"They've got to get through the logjam in New Hampshire and stay on top of the log long enough to do well on February 3," said Michael Barone, editor of the Almanac of American Politics, referring to the cluster of primaries that includes South Carolina. "Then they can end up as the anti-Dean or the anti-Kerry."
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