2 in a row for Kerry

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Senator John F. Kerry won a decisive victory in the New Hampshire primary last night, capturing front-runner status with 39 percent of the vote after last week's surprising reversal in the Democratic nominating contest.

Howard Dean, whose fortunes rose and fell dramatically in the Granite State, appeared to have survived his disastrous third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and the notorious scream that followed. But with Dean garnering just 26 percent of the vote after 97 percent of the precincts reported their results, his recovery was nowhere near enough to outmuscle Kerry.

"I love New Hampshire," Kerry declared, beaming as he took the stage at his victory rally. "And I love Iowa, too. And I hope with your help to have the blessings and the opportunity to love a lot of other states in the days to come."

With two New England candidates at the top of the ticket, the rest of the field lagged farther behind. Late last night, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina and retired Army General Wesley K. Clark remained locked in a surprisingly close battle for third place, hovering at 12 percent or 13 percent.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, the former vice presidential nominee, came in fifth with 9 percent, putting him at risk of running out of steam. Still, Lieberman said, the margin was close enough to make it a "three-way split decision for third place." Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio received 1 percent of the vote.

The race, already the hardest-fought Democratic nominating contest in more than a decade, drew a record number of voters -- about 200,000 -- to cast ballots in the state's Democratic primary, only adding to the mounting intensity of the contest.

After more than a year of retail politics in small hamlets across Iowa and New Hampshire, the contenders face a dramatically different campaign as of today, fanning out across seven far-flung states that hold their contests on Feb. 3.

Instead of door-to-door campaigning, the race now becomes a battle of television ads and airport rallies, a far more expensive and exhausting format than the first two races.

The schedule gives extra significance to momentum, an invisible edge that has blessed and cursed the candidates in this race over the last month. Dean hopes that with his second-place finish, he can now prove that he is on an upward trajectory. Edwards sees promise in his rise to a double-digit finish last night after registering in the low single digits before the Iowa caucuses last week, and said he hopes it will be boosted with victories in Southern and Midwestern states.

"Look at what we've done. This momentum is extraordinary," Edwards told the crowd at his postprimary rally before flying to South Carolina. "And now we're going to take this energy and momentum . . . and we're going to take it right through Feb. 3, and we're going to see great victory on Feb. 3."

For complete primary results, including votes in each New Hampshire town, visit www.boston.com. But with two consecutive wins in the last eight days, Kerry emerged with all the advantages of victory -- especially the ability to raise campaign funds.

As recently as a month ago, Kerry trailed Dean by more than 30 points in the Granite State, and his low standing overall put him at a fund-raising disadvantage so severe that he put about $7 million of his money into the campaign. In the week after the Iowa caucuses, Kerry raised about $1 million -- allowing him to launch an advertising blitz, starting today, in all seven states that vote on Feb. 3.

Kerry declared his triumph "a huge turnaround and an upset." And he sounded a note of controlled confidence, setting his sights on President Bush rather than his nomination rivals as part of his strategy to persuade voters he is the best able to get elected.

"In the hardest moments of the past month, I depended on the same band of brothers that I depended on some 30 years ago," he told a packed hall of cheering supporters. "We're a little older and a little grayer, but I'll tell you this: We still know how to fight for our country."

With his special thank you to veterans, Kerry underscored not only that he had won their support despite competition from Clark, a fellow veteran, but also that he intends to use his own military service to neutralize national security as an issue in any race against Bush. That approach seems to be working: While 57 percent of voters in New Hampshire's Democratic primary said they chose their candidate because they agreed with his position on the issues, 33 percent said they made their decision based on who could beat Bush in November. Of those who said "electability" was more important, 54 percent voted for Kerry and 14 percent voted for Dean.

That theme of electability has come to dominate the nominating process in general, eclipsing ideological differences, voting histories, and positions on key issues as the central factor on which the candidates are focused.

Democrat Robert Chase, 66, of Bedford said he chose Kerry for that reason. "I toyed with the others, but he can beat Bush," Chase said of Kerry.

Dean emerged last night far calmer than after his third-place loss last week, and made no mention of the screeching rant that helped drive down his popularity. He also downplayed expectations that he will win in the Feb. 3 states, portraying his campaign as a slow march through all the primary states. Still, he encouraged his raucous supporters to stay confident.

"We really are going to win this nomination, aren't we?" Dean said to the cheering crowd. "The people of New Hampshire have allowed our campaign to regain its momentum, and I am very grateful. The people of New Hampshire have allowed all of you to hope again that we're going to have real change in America."

Whether it was because of his poor showing in Iowa or the speech after, Dean lost out in the bid for the voters who made their minds up at the end of the New Hampshire race, more than half the electorate.

Fifty-four percent said they had made their decision in the last week. Kerry took 39 percent of those voters, while Dean took 21 percent.

Health care and Medicare were the chief concerns, with 28 percent saying they were the issues that mattered most in deciding how to vote, according to the voters polled after casting their ballots. Twenty-two percent said they were most concerned about the economy and jobs, while 19 percent listed the war in Iraq. Kerry led with those who listed health care and Medicare, pulling 43 percent of their votes. Dean led among those who listed the war as their top issue, with 36 percent to Kerry's 32 percent.

Only 36 percent said their financial situation was worse today than it was four years ago, while 37 percent said it was about the same. Among those who said they were worse off, Kerry won 40 percent and Dean 26 percent.

Independent or undeclared voters cast 45 percent of the ballots yesterday, and Kerry won among this group, with 35 percent to Dean's 25 percent. Kerry also led among registered Democrats, 39 percent to Dean's 30 percent.

In the Republican primary that was held in New Hampshire yesterday, Bush appeared to have some ardent supporters, despite losing by a stunning 18 percentage points in the state's primary four years ago.

In fact, election officials said they were surprised by the turnout in the Republican primary, in which the president ran virtually unopposed. By 2 p.m. at McKelvie Middle School in Bedford, officials said, 1,725 voters participated in the Democratic primary and 820 voted in the Republican primary.

Some Republicans spent months quietly celebrating the surge by Dean, whom they were ready to define as an angry oddball out of touch with the electorate.

That meant for some strategic voting yesterday: Two Bush supporters in Manchester, Richard and Denise Tenney, voted for Dean because, they said, they think the former governor would be the weaker candidate to run against Bush.

"There is a method to the madness," said Richard Tenney, 53. "I am a Bush guy, and it doesn't matter who the Democrats put up. Bush is going to beat them, but I'd rather see Dean against Bush." Such tactics are possible in New Hampshire because registered independents can vote in the Democratic primary and anyone can switch affiliations before Election Day.

(Bryan Bender and Glen Johnson of The Globe Staff contributed to this report. Anne E. Kornblut can be reached via e-mail at akornblut@Globe.com.)