Kerry redeploys his forces for February primaries

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Senator John F. Kerry's campaign is laying the groundwork to capitalize on the result of Tuesday's New Hampshire primary by bulking up staff in Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan, and other states with key primaries in February.

The Kerry camp is now redeploying scores of field organizers, political strategists, and media advisers to those states from the campaign's successful operation in Iowa, where Kerry won a come-from-behind victory in the caucuses Monday.

Advisers to Kerry say they are hoping for a similar victory in New Hampshire to generate a surge of momentum to overcome Kerry's near-invisibility and low poll numbers in several February primary states. According to last night's Globe/WBZ-TV daily tracking poll, Kerry has expanded his lead in New Hampshire over Howard Dean, 34 percent to 19 percent.

Kerry told reporters yesterday that while he was "going to do exactly what I did in Iowa" and "campaign my heart out" every day in New Hampshire through Tuesday, he was also making phone calls to leaders in February primary states. "This isn't the only place there's a race now," he said.

According to campaign officials, at least six Iowa staffers are heading to New Mexico, 15 to Arizona, and five to North Dakota, and at least a dozen staff workers and volunteers are expected to decamp shortly for Missouri. Those four states are among the seven that hold primaries on Feb. 3, the next round of contests after New Hampshire's.

Two delegate-rich states that vote on Feb. 7 -- Michigan and Washington state -- also are receiving an influx of help from Iowa.

"We're getting over 30 ground troops in from Iowa and sending them across Michigan to get embedded with our local coordinators," said Chris Trebilcock, the campaign's volunteer communication director in Michigan. "We have an uphill battle here -- Dean has a lot of union support -- but Kerry has a lot of momentum here after Iowa." Just yesterday, Trebilcock noted, a Michigan union representing 34,000 grocery and retail-sector workers endorsed Kerry.

In Washington state, a local newspaper reported that 12 Iowa staff members were heading there to join six full-time campaign workers.

Kerry said yesterday he had not decided where to travel after New Hampshire but indicated that his plans would be driven by the primary result here, saying, "Let's see where we are Tuesday night." Campaign officials predicted that he would focus on Arizona, New Mexico, and South Carolina, not only because he has ground teams and high-profile endorsements there, but also because voters may cotton to his decorated war record in Vietnam and his plans on national security, tax cuts, and lower health insurance premiums.

Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said the campaign also would probably compete hard in Missouri, which has the most delegates at stake Feb. 3 but had been written off until native son Richard A. Gephardt dropped out of the race Tuesday.

"We're going to have the best field operation that can ever be turned on a dime in Missouri -- it will be breathtaking how quickly that will happen," Meehan said.

One senior Kerry adviser yesterday contrasted the senator's game plan with those of two past Massachusetts candidates, Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 and Paul Tsongas in 1992. Dukakis capitalized on his New Hampshire primary victory by picking his next shots carefully, aiming for Florida, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington state, and winning them all; Tsongas, however, "didn't know where to compete after winning New Hampshire, and he lost momentum fast," the adviser said.

Kerry, in turn, has a potentially huge opportunity that neither Dukakis nor Tsongas had: He could win both Iowa and New Hampshire. (Iowa went to Gephardt in 1988 and native son Tom Harkin in 1992.) Kerry is now on the ballots in 41 states, according to the campaign.

Some rival campaigns have taken a dim view of Kerry's strategy to concentrate on Iowa and then New Hampshire and spend only one day apiece in New Mexico and South Carolina, and a half-day in Arizona, since Labor Day. "He has had no serious presence and no TV ads in major states after New Hampshire," said one adviser to another Democratic candidate. "It's going to be a problem."

Jack Bass, a political analyst at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, said yesterday that only a New Hampshire victory would give Kerry enough momentum to attract large numbers of voters there.

"Right now the appearance is that John Kerry's campaign is almost shut down in South Carolina, though I know there are people working hard individually for him," Bass said. "Polls a week before the Iowa caucuses showed Kerry getting 2 percent of the vote. He needs another major victory to renew interest here."

Bass predicted that Kerry would also benefit from a new endorsement yesterday by US Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, who has been elected to seven terms by South Carolina voters.

Hollings hailed Kerry's service in Vietnam and in the Senate, where the two joined forces on budget deficit reduction, and said the Massachusetts senator was "the only fella that I know that really has the courage and the experience in every regard" to defeat President Bush.

He dismissed the idea of a Yankee foundering in the South with a "bah, humbug," and noted that Al Gore lost his home state of Tennessee in the 2000 general election. Hollings plans to join Kerry's "veterans' brigade" on the campaign trail in New Hampshire today.

Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.