Clark shifts gear, courts South votes

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- He has given stump speeches across New Hampshire, talked ad infinitum on television. But it wasn't until he stood before the Young Democrats of Columbia, S.C., that retired Army General Wesley K. Clark's voice took on a new quality: a slight but unmistakable twang.

He entered the race, Clark told the group last week, "because I was so darn mad at George W. Bush." He knew about elections in foreign countries because "I was in charge of supporting 'em and making 'em work." It might have been a prelude to a Southern-fried Clark on display early this week, during his campaign's whirlwind "True Grits" tour of eight Southern states yesterday and today.

The trip represents a shift in approach for Clark, who is still widely associated with his foreign policy credentials, campaigns with Rhodes Scholar elocution, and repeatedly professes his love for New Hampshire. Clark must perform well in the Granite State primary on Jan. 27, but he also needs a strong showing a week later on Feb. 3, when seven states hold elections, perhaps none of them more prominent than South Carolina.

It is in South Carolina, in the first Southern primary -- in a state that proved a crucial testing ground in 2000 -- that several candidates hope to emerge as the best alternative to Yankee-bred Howard Dean. And it is on this week's Southern swing, which ends pointedly in South Carolina today, that Clark hopes to promote some new campaign themes. One is a direct appeal to black voters, who aren't present in large numbers in New Hampshire, but are expected to make up about 40 percent of South Carolina's primary voters. Another is a display of his Arkansas roots, though Clark's Little Rock lilt is still a far cry from a deep Southern drawl.

"I'm not sure how many people in South Carolina even know quite where Arkansas is or even are positive that Arkansas was one of the Confederate states. But they also know that Bill Clinton was a Southerner," said Jack Bass, a professor at the College of Charleston, who coauthored the book "The Transformation of Southern Politics."

If there's confusion, Clark will try to make up for it with Southern vernacular. In a prepared speech he delivered in Little Rock yesterday morning, Clark said it was so early that "I don't even think the hogs are up yet," and he talked about his Baptist upbringing and the school where "we read the Bible in homeroom and recited prayers every morning."

Clark's supporters contend he has advantages beyond his Dixie roots: an Army career that could play well in a state with an affinity for the military, a hefty share of veterans, and an open election system that allows Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary; a diverse staff that has been working hard on the ground; a fast fund-raising clip that means he can compete with other candidates on the airwaves.

Still, it can take some time for image to sink in, and for campaign investments to pay off. Clark spent last weekend visiting two large African-American churches in Columbia and held a closed-door meeting with black business leaders. But at a Dec. 21 rally in front of the state Democratic headquarters, he was greeted by a largely white crowd of about 100, and nearly a third of them had driven from Georgia. One Columbia resident, Ophelia Jasper, 60, said she had misunderstood what the event would be.

"I haven't gotten my head into it yet," she said. "I really don't know any of them. So we have a primary coming up in February? My goodness."

Indeed, close observers say the state's primary race remains wide open, with so few voters focused that polls are nearly meaningless.

"A lot of the undecided will decide after the New Hampshire primary, and then there's a debate here. I think there are going to be a lot of decisions made that last week," Bass said.

So for now, every prominent candidate is furiously trying to exploit his advantages. Edwards seldom misses an opportunity to mention that he was born in the state, and has touted an endorsement from homegrown band Hootie & the Blowfish. Senator John F. Kerry made his official campaign announcement near Charleston, though he has returned to the state for only one visit since September.

Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri is running TV ads that feature his endorsement from Representative James E. Clyburn, the state's highest-ranking black official. Dean appears at campaign events with Representative Jesse L. Jackson Jr. of Illinois. The Rev. Al Sharpton preaches at black churches and capitalizes on his religious credentials. In November, Clark visited the mother of a South Carolina man who had been killed in Iraq. Sharpton delivered the eulogy.

Clark showed up in South Carolina last week with two prominent African-American supporters of his own, neither of whom hailed from the state. Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York, sat beside Clark in church and passed out meals at a Florence food bank. He admitted he hadn't been sure what an endorsement from a New York congressman would mean in South Carolina.

"To my amazement and surprise, there are so many New Yorkers down here that I'm going to start a New Yorkers for Clark campaign in South Carolina," Rangel said.

Former UN ambassador Andrew Young, a more recent Clark endorser from Atlanta, where he served as mayor, took on a more prominent role on Clark's trip, particularly in the churches. In each, Clark waved silently from his pew, but Young, a minister, was invited to the rostrum. Each time, he pointed out Clark's Army ties.

"The one institution that has been fair with all Americans, regardless of race, creed and color," Young said at one church, "is the military."

Clark continued to press for the support of black voters yesterday, speaking about voting rights at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where a bombing killed four black girls in 1963.

On the surface, however, the response Clark was getting a few days before Christmas wasn't overwhelming. At Brookland Baptist Church in West Columbia, one parishioner murmured that politicians were hardly exciting visitors these days, and George Glymph, 55, a member of the choir, noted that Clark "got in the game so late." Still Glymph said, Clark has "got Andrew Young for him. I'll bet I'll be there for him."

Five weeks from the primary, Clark's campaign can cling to a few such glimmers of hope. There are chances for shifting loyalties: state Senator Darrell Jackson, the pastor of the second church Clark visited, once had a ranking role in Edwards's campaign, but told a Columbia newspaper that he had quit and was meeting with other contenders.

And at Clark's rally at Democratic headquarters, Margaret Gibbes Jackson, a Camden, S.C., resident whose husband -- like Clark -- had attended the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., wrote a $1,000 check for the campaign and said she was seeking recruits.

Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com.