Candidates hope South can trump Dean's surge

Barreling through snowy Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean's presidential campaign has rolled to the lead in the first two voting contests of the Democratic nominating process next month. Yesterday, however, the campaigns of some of his rivals looked to the South as a place to slow the Vermonter's express.

Representative Richard A. Gephardt picked up a major endorsement from Representative James E. Clyburn, the most influential African-American politician in South Carolina, which votes Feb. 3, a week after New Hampshire. Clyburn extolled Gephardt's working-class values and proposals for universal health care and trade agreement protections for US workers. But he said Dean "concerned a lot of my supporters" last month with his comment that he wants to be "the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

At the same time, key Southern supporters of retired Army General Wesley K. Clark, in a teleconference with reporters, questioned Dean's electability in a general election and said if he is at the top of the ticket he could be a liability for other Southern Democrats in next year's congressional races. Clark, an Arkansan, will have much stronger appeal in the South, they said.

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, in an interview with Globe editors and reporters, said Dean and other northern candidates come across as "paternalistic" to Southern voters. Edwards, who has said he must win the South Carolina primary to stay in the race, also described Dean's remarks about the Confederate flag as "stereotyping." Dean later apologized for reviving the controversial issue.

In response to questions about Dean's viability in the South, Dean spokesman Jay Carson said, "Governor Dean is the kind of person who says what he believes no matter whether it's popular or not, and that's appealing in every region of the country. There's no validity to these desperate arguments."

Carson pointed to polls showing Dean leading the Democratic pack in Florida and even South Carolina. Several other South Carolina polls have placed Dean farther back, behind Clark, Edwards, and others in the nine-person field.

The Southern emphasis of Dean's opponents came a day after former vice president Al Gore endorsed Dean, prompting speculation that support from Gore, a Tennesseean, could provide a boost in Dixie to the former Vermont governor. But Clark partisan Jim Hodges, former governor of South Carolina, said he doubted Gore's blessing will have any impact. "Gore didn't carry a single Southern state," including Tennessee, in the 2000 presidential election, Hodges said.

Hodges said Dean is "probably the worst positioned of the major candidates to reach out to Southern voters" because he is "more identifiable as a figure from the left wing of the party." Clark, he said, "is in the best position," by virtue of his military background and Southern upbringing.

Clark and Dean were opponents of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, but Representative Lincoln Davis of Tennessee said Clark's military experience -- decorated Vietnam War veteran and commander of NATO forces in the Balkans -- gives him more credibility.

"How can Republicans say Democrats are soft on defense with Wes Clark?" said Davis, a first-term congressman.

A Dean nomination could produce "another George McGovern race," Davis said, referring to the South Dakota senator's 49-state wipeout in 1972. Moreover, it could put Democrats running for Congress "in jeopardy in the South," he said.

The once solidly Democratic South has gone solidly Republican in four of the last nine presidential elections. In the other five, among Democrats, only Jimmy Carter in 1976 carried more than four of the 11 Southern states.

Nevertheless, the early voting in South Carolina, and primaries in Tennessee and Virginia a week later, have sharpened the party's focus on the region. Clyburn, in endorsing Gephardt, said Democrats in the Palmetto State are using the primary to rebuild the party there.

In a telephone interview with reporters, Clyburn, a six-term incumbent and longtime civil rights leader in South Carolina, vowed to give Gephardt "all the time I can muster" in an effort to help his candidacy. They will campaign together this weekend in the state.

With black voters expected to account for about half of the primary turnout, Clyburn was courted by all of the Democratic candidates. In recent interviews with the Globe, state party chairman Joe Erwin and Don Fowler, a South Carolinian and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Clyburn's backing is the most important endorsement a candidate can receive in the state.

Gephardt has been in the middle of the pack in most South Carolina polls, all of which show large percentages of undecided voters. The Clyburn endorsement, however, could become moot if Gephardt loses the kickoff contest in Iowa Jan. 19.

The Missourian, who is locked in a close fight in Iowa with Dean, has acknowledged he must win his neighboring state to sustain his candidacy through the New Hampshire primary eight days later.

Raja Mishra of the Globe staff contributed to this report.