Demos turn on star power in Iowa

DAVENPORT, Iowa — As the race for the Democratic presidential nomination enters the last week before the first polling in Iowa a week from Monday, the candidates are bringing in their star supporters in an effort to win an important early victory and the momentum that goes with it.

Howard Dean campaigned on Saturday with former Vice President Al Gore, John Kerry had fellow Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. Dick Gephardt has Kennedy's son, fellow Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, as well as California's Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives.

The cavalcade of stars is one sign that next week's Iowa caucuses may be the most hotly contested since 1988. Party officials predict that caucus attendance will double the attendance in the 2000 contest between Gore and New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley but said the state is too unsettled to predict the winner.

"A lot of caucusgoers are undecided or could be persuaded to change candidates," said Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer. "It could be higher than one-third of caucusgoers. I really think it's a very fluid situation."

Dean has spent nearly two years traveling the state, and in the polls he's managed to overtake Gephardt, who's from neighboring Missouri and won the Iowa caucuses in 1988. But polls suggest that Gephardt and Kerry are clawing their way back as the Jan. 19 caucuses approach.

"Its gonna be a close race here," predicted Gephardt campaign manager Steve Murphy. "Everybody is trying to be the second choice of everybody else's voters."

In Iowa, with a field of nine candidates, second place counts, and organization often matters more than issues. The Byzantine caucus system encourages party activists to lure each other from one camp to another in often freewheeling, hours-long sessions in homes, school gyms and club halls.

Gephardt has been attacking Dean fiercely, jumping on remarks the former Vermont governor made years ago on Canadian television, where he complained that the caucuses were controlled by special interests.

Those remarks led the news in Iowa, but Dean softened the blow by winning the endorsement of popular Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. Kerry on Friday secured his own endorsement, from state attorney general Tom Miller, the top statewide vote getter in 2002.

While polling is difficult in caucus states, most surveys have Dean in front, followed by Gephardt and Kerry. A Los Angeles Times poll released Saturday gives Dean 30 percent of the vote, Gephardt 23 and Kerry 18.