Clark's N.H. progress dogs Kerry

FORT MADISON, Iowa -- As presidential candidate John F. Kerry zipped across Iowa yesterday, picking up an endorsement from the governor's wife, a popular figure in the state, and packing four "town halls" with voters, a long shadow was falling from the east.

Retired General Wesley K. Clark has executed a powerful flanking operation in New Hampshire that has pushed Kerry into third place in recent polls.

With Kerry facing two critical, possibly decisive tests of his candidacy in the next two weeks -- the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 27 New Hampshire primary -- his homestretch strategy of lavishing personal time on Iowa has created vulnerabilities in New Hampshire that are worrying some advisers in the Kerry camp.

Almost every morning for a week, they have woken to find Clark rising past Kerry in Granite State opinion polls. On Jan. 7, Clark passed Kerry, stoking anxiety about a devastating third-place finish there for the senator. Yesterday, Kerry's campaign chairwoman held a news conference in Manchester, N.H., for the explicit purpose of attacking Clark's credentials as a Democrat, saying she did not trust him to lead the party -- the campaign's first offensive on Clark specifically.

In Iowa, meanwhile, Kerry is running out of time to capitalize on new endorsements as he tries to rally voters in person. He is also facing insurgent competition from rival John Edwards for third or even second place, as the North Carolina senator seeks momentum from an influential endorsement Sunday by the Des Moines Register.

"Kerry is facing the same problem that hurt Bill Bradley in 2000: Will the time and expense of campaigning in Iowa just stall his campaign in New Hampshire?" said Linda Fowler, a government professor at Dartmouth College. "The answer was yes for Bradley. It's still not clear for Kerry."

Since early December, Kerry has said he is competing for a top-three finish in Iowa and the top two in New Hampshire; failure at either would not lead him to drop out, he says, but advisers acknowledge that morale would plummet and he probably would founder in the South, where he is already lagging in polls. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean is well ahead of both Kerry and Clark in New Hampshire polls, while Dean and Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri are leading in Iowa.

Kerry has spent eight days this month in Iowa and is scheduled to remain through the caucuses. He is drawing larger crowds, topping 1,000 people at one rally Saturday night with Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Yesterday, he received the endorsement of Christie Vilsack, wife of Governor Tom Vilsack. The governor is not endorsing a candidate before the caucuses, but some political observers saw Christie Vilsack's backing -- and the governor's supportive comments for Kerry -- as a sign that the powerful family is behind him. In addition, since Friday, Kerry received the endorsement of newspapers in Iowa City, Davenport, and Burlington, Iowa.

Meanwhile, Kerry has left the New Hampshire turf to Clark, with only his high-profile supporters to battle for him. Furthermore, he has had no personal presence recently in the seven states that hold a crucial round of nominating contests Feb. 3.

"He likes to campaign where voters are listening, where the vote is about to happen," a Kerry adviser said recently about the campaign's focus on Iowa.

His Iowa strategy has a two-pronged basis: Kerry is so far behind in New Hampshire that he needs a slingshot surge from a strong, surprise showing from Iowa, and his advisers say that Kerry performs far better with voters in person than on television and that the town-hall-style retail politics of Iowa plays to his strengths.

"My friends told me that when you get him sitting down at a table, he comes across a lot better than TV -- he just looks like he's trying too hard on TV," said Sue Clemens, an occupational therapist and undecided voter. She was one of about 750 people who attended a Saturday morning rally in Davenport featuring Kerry and Kennedy. "They were right. So I'm giving Kerry and Dean real thought." Clark is not competing in the caucuses -- because he entered the Democratic race in September, unusually late-- and his campaign decided to focus its resources on New Hampshire. He recently finished an 11-day sprint there, and his crowds have grown, with voters hailing his military experience and national security knowledge -- resume highlights that Kerry touts about himself. After initial missteps, Clark has been generating some excitement, political observers say. In Hanover, N.H., recently, Clark drew 700 people to a Dartmouth event -- 400 of them were turned away -- while only 100 showed up to hear him at the same spot in November, Fowler said.

In daily tracking polls in New Hampshire by the American Research Group, Clark has inched past Kerry. A Jan. 9-11 poll suggested Dean has 36 percent, Clark has 19 percent, and Kerry and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut are tied at 10 percent. Kerry, who started the year ahead nationally in the polls and as a clear favorite in neighboring New Hampshire, has struggled to find a message and stump style that energizes voters. He is connecting better in Iowa now -- and in New Hampshire, though with far fewer visits, his campaign insists -- but his advisers fear that time is running out. Yesterday's attack by campaign chairwoman Jeanne Shaheen, who was New Hampshire's governor from 1996 to 2002, took Clark to task for his kind words for Republicans in the past, including President Bush, before Clark registered as a Democrat in October.

"I just don't think someone who raised money for Republicans, praised George W. Bush after he had begun his systematic reversal of Bill Clinton's policies, and who as recently as this past summer refused to rule out running for president as a Republican should be the Democratic nominee for president," Shaheen said, according to a copy of her remarks. Shaheen, who was joined by three other state Democratic leaders backing Kerry, added in a news release: "I don't feel comfortable entrusting him with the leadership of our party and nation."

The Kerry campaign also announced that two retired generals, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy of the US Army and Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney of the Marines, will campaign for Kerry in New Hampshire today and tomorrow, respectively.

Kerry has been wary of playing the attack dog or suggesting he would not support any rival as the Democratic nominee and party leader. To that end, Kerry said yesterday morning that he did not know about Shaheen's offensive, which was approved by campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill, a Kerry aide confirmed yesterday.

Later, he informed reporters that Shaheen would be talking about Clark and his record.

Clark's communications director, Matt Bennett, expressed confidence yesterday that the new attacks would not work, nor would Kerry's Iowa strategy. "New Hampshire voters don't care that much about what happens in Iowa, especially to a candidate who they already know as well as Massachusetts Senator John Kerry," Bennett said.

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