Kerry Slows the Pace for New Hampshire Primary

LACONIA, N.H. —  Since landing in New Hampshire early Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry has spent much of his time looking beyond Tuesday’s primary -- a contest that once loomed as a potential make-or-break for his Democratic presidential bid.

Compared with his breakneck campaign pace in weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses -- six or seven events each day, hundreds of miles covered by bus and helicopter -- Kerry has cut back significantly on public appearances in New Hampshire. Instead, he has taken to the phones, seeking more money for his revitalized campaign and rallying troops in the spate of states with primaries and caucuses that quickly follow in February.

Among those Kerry has spoken with is Dick Gephardt, who left the Democratic race after coming in a disappointing fourth in Monday’s Iowa vote. A Gephardt endorsement would be a powerful asset in Missouri, the congressman’s home state and, with the end of his candidacy, site of a now up-for-grab primary on Feb. 3.

It’s not that Kerry is ignoring New Hampshire. But he is already well-known by its voters, having served as a U.S. senator from neighboring Massachusetts for more than 19 years.

And while his surprise victory in Iowa has catapulted him to the lead in several New Hampshire polls, Kerry must rapidly shift gears and plot a strategy that will carry him beyond the Granite State.

Kerry “cannibalized his operations everywhere” for his Iowa campaign, knowing that a poor showing there would mean he needed to rebound in New Hampshire or consider leaving the race, said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of a nonpartisan political newsletter in Washington.

“It was worth it, but it’s a challenge now” for Kerry to adjust to his new status, Rothenberg said.

For instance, while some of his rivals have been advertising in several states, the Kerry campaign during the first part of January was airing commercials only in Iowa and New Hampshire.

While Kerry and his staff refuse to utter the “f” word -- frontrunner -- the campaign has all the trappings of an effort on the way up.

He set aside time this week for an interview with “60 Minutes,” which plans to air a segment on him Sunday -- two days before the New Hampshire vote. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie is to discuss Kerry’s legislative record at the Conservative Political Action Conference today in Arlington, Va., a sure sign he may emerge as President Bush’s opponent.

Kerry’s campaign staff is struggling to handle the crush of media attention that descended Monday night in Iowa and has not abated, cameras swarming the candidate at every event, boom mikes dropping into every conversation, rope lines trampled into impotence. The direct contact he had with voters in Iowa as an underdog is fast becoming a distant memory.

Kerry “enjoyed the fact that in Iowa there were no boundaries between him, the voters and the media,”’ said press secretary David Wade. “He doesn’t want that to change just because now people think he’s a stronger candidate.”

In the last leg of his Iowa campaign, Kerry stressed health-care and economic issues, and relentlessly attacked special interests and the power they wield in Washington. That message served him well, and Kerry and his aides see no reason to change it.

“I’m just going to continue to do exactly what I’ve done,” Kerry told reporters Thursday as his bus, the “Real Deal Express,” headed from Manchester to Laconia for a chili feed at a packed Elks Lodge.

“I’m going to be doing the same thing, talking about the issues that are important and my vision for the country.”

With Thursday night’s debate in Manchester behind him and three days of phone calls and strategizing under his belt, Kerry promised a return today to the frantic pace that clinched his come-from-behind win in Iowa.

“There’s an old saying in sports,” he said. “ ‘Play the way you practice.’ And I’m going to show [voters] every day what kind of president I’m going to be, which is a hard-fighting, full-time, on-the-job, fully engaged, take-nothing-for-granted, fight-for-the-people president.”

Kerry was asked by reporters whether Gephardt has decided to back him. He said he did not have “any idea what Dick will do,” but vowed an aggressive effort in Missouri and beyond.

“That’s part of what I’ve been doing the last days, is being on the phone to people in Missouri and elsewhere, talking to people and getting geared up,” he said

New Hampshire “isn’t the only place there’s a race now,” he said. “So I’ve needed time to be on the telephone to leaders, to people who have been involved in other campaigns.”

Rothenberg believes that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- despite his third-place finish in Iowa and continuing criticism of the bellowing speech he gave that night to supporters -- remains positioned to continue beyond New Hampshire, in part because of the more than $40 million his campaign raised in 2003.

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark is also well placed, he said, having raised more than $10 million in the last three months of last year and avoided spending the money in Iowa.

As for Kerry, Rothenberg said: “If he wins New Hampshire, he’ll get more money and endorsements and enhance his possibilities” in the contests that follow.

Kerry insisted that he still considers himself an underdog in New Hampshire.

Dante Scala, associate professor of political science at St. Anselm College in Manchester, said Kerry’s support has surged in New Hampshire partly because many Democrats “have gotten a severe case of cold feet regarding Dean.”

“The question is whether ... liberal Democrats stick with Kerry after leaving Dean or whether they may shop around,” Scala said.

He noted that for months, Kerry aides had predicted that liberals would “date Dean, but marry Kerry. The first part has come true. Let’s see if the second part does.”