Iowa caucus gets down to wire

DES MOINES — With one week left until one of the hardest-fought Iowa caucuses in history, Democratic candidates battled ferociously for momentum Sunday as they campaigned across the state and convened Sunday night for a final televised forum in the state.

Eight of the nine candidates participated in the forum, evidence that the leading contenders cannot afford to rely on paid television ads alone at this late stage. Recent polls indicated Howard Dean was holding a narrow lead over Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who in turn narrowly led Sens. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts and John Edwards of North Carolina.

Gephardt, who must win in Iowa to remain viable, trained his sights on Dean over health care, an issue that resonates among elderly participants in the Democratic caucuses. But the most spirited exchanges were over racial issues, which was the intention of the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential Forum, established in 1984 to draw attention to African-American and Latino issues.

Dean took shots from the rest of the field, including a grilling from the Rev. Al Sharpton over how committed he was to employing minorities in state government during his time as governor of Vermont.

Pressed by Sharpton, Dean contended he had not appointed any minorities to top roles. He defended his commitment to minority issues, however, asserting that he had more endorsements from the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus than any of his rivals.

"I will take a back seat to no one on my commitment to civil rights in the United States of America," Dean said. Sharpton declared that Dean had opened himself up to such attacks by bringing up race and the Confederate flag in the first place.

"To ask him his own record is not a racial screaming match . . . Had he not introduced the subject, then it would have been hysterical of me to raise it," Sharpton said.

While a small percentage of caucus-goers in Iowa are minorities, the forum was broadcast on the national cable network MSNBC and the Spanish-language station Telemundo. Latinos and African-Americans constitute about 4 percent of Iowa's population. Though neither group traditionally tips the balance in the caucuses, the campaigns are struggling for every vote, given how tight the race is.