Miami Herald: The road to the nomination

[La_Serpiente]

The road to the nomination

WASHINGTON - Inside John Kerry's presidential war room near Capitol Hill, one of the most important jobs is carried out by a preppy 31-year-old who stalks the office dangling a baseball bat from his right hand.

Jonathan Adashek is counting delegates, the Democratic activists who will actually vote at this summer's national convention to nominate the party's presidential candidate.

Working from an office adorned with a huge color-coded map of the United States showing primary election dates and the number of delegates at stake in each one, Adashek is helping to hatch a thread-the-needle battle plan that Kerry strategists hope will transform the senator from one-time front-runner to the comeback kid.

The voting begins Jan. 19 in Iowa. A nominee could be known as early as March.

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The road to the nomination