Edwards gets key backing in N.H.

State Senator Lou D'Allesandro of New Hampshire announced yesterday he was backing the presidential candidacy of US Senator John Edwards, saying the North Carolinian reminded him of a young John F. Kennedy.

The three-term state senator, a former Republican and member of the state House of Representatives, had been courted by most of the nine candidates for the Democratic nomination because of his cross-party contacts and his representation of vote-rich Manchester in the State House.

In a conference call with reporters, D'Allesandro said he was impressed with Edwards's dynamism, which he said reminded him of Kennedy, a former Massachusetts senator who was elected president in 1960.

"Hopefully those people will come with me on this quest for the Holy Grail," D'Allesandro said of his supporters. He said he also plans to target uncommitted voters, a bloc that often votes Republican, hoping to convince them to take a Democratic ballot and cast it on behalf of Edwards.

Edwards relished the endorsement, saying: "This is a huge thing for our campaign." He added: "This is one of two things that show real movement for us over the course of the last week."

The other, the senator said, was a poll in the Sunday Globe showing Edwards third among likely Democratic voters in the state's Jan. 27 primary. The leaders were two regional candidates, former Vermont governor Howard Dean and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

GLEN JOHNSON