Edwards' 2008 bid brings out old supporters, new crowds

Edwards' 2008 bid brings out old supporters, new crowds

By JIM DAVENPORTSunday, December 31, 2006
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. - John Edwards is using the same team he used in 2004 to win South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary, but the former North Carolina senator knows he can't sneak up on his opponents in 2008.
When Edwards showed up at an event here Saturday as part of his six-state presidential campaign launch, he was greeted by an unexpectedly large group _ about 1,800 people.
"People know who I am now," Edwards said Saturday after the West Columbia town-hall meeting. "Large numbers of people are going to show up, but I want to continue having this kind of event."
It was the kind of campaigning he did in 2004, when the former U.S. senator who was born near Seneca won 45 percent of the primary vote compared with eventual nominee John Kerry's 30 percent.
Edwards' notoriety is not the only thing that will be different in a 2008 campaign.
South Carolina's role in helping choose the Democratic nominee will be more prominent as it hosts the party's fourth presidential contest. Anyone looking to win in South Carolina will have to win the approval of black voters who make up half the state's Democratic voters.
Edwards' event Saturday was held at Brookland Baptist Church _ one of the state's largest black churches _ but less than half the crowd at the event was black.
That could play big if U.S. Sen. Barak Obama of Illinois decides to run.
At Saturday's kickoff, Luevera Caeser said she voted for Edwards in 2004 and would support him in 2008 _ unless Obama runs. "If Barak Obama runs for president, I'm behind him," said Caeser, who is black. "He's an African-American man and we're long overdue."
Still, she said, she wouldn't mind an Edwards-Obama or Obama-Edwards ticket.
Edwards is using many of the same organizers who helped him win here in 2004.
Columbia lawyer John Moylan is reprising his role running Edwards' South Carolina campaign, but Moylan says this time there is more interest early from volunteers who want to work on the campaign.
"I would rather be John Edwards with our organization than any other candidate in this state by far," Moylan said.
Since Edwards announcement, Moylan said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and state Senate Democratic Leader John Land signed on for the second race.
"I'm absolutely for Edwards," Coble said, adding that he was "impressed with his making the fight against poverty more of a centerpiece of his campaign."
Land said "the country made a bad mistake not nominating him" in 2004. "He just brings a fresh approach to this whole country."
Barnwell lawyer Terry Richardson, one of the state's wealthiest trial lawyers, said Saturday that he's backing Edwards again.
In 2004, Edwards got his campaign off the ground with donations from lawyers like Land and Richardson. His "base of support this time is tenfold what it was four years ago. He's in a very different place _ a very different starting place," Moylan said.
His competition also will be very different, with Obama and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York potential candidates.
Edwards says he wants others to run if they want to serve like he does. "I want the best human beings possible to run for president of the United States," Edwards said last week.
Other potential Democratic candidates include New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, retired Gen. Wesley Clark and U.S. Sens. Joe Biden of Delaware, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Kerry of Massachusetts. Former Vice President Al Gore, who lost to George W. Bush in 2000, says he has no plans to run.
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich have already announced that they are running in 2008.
A service of the Associated Press(AP)

http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2006/12/31/ap-state-sc/d8mc2sug0.txt