As Holiday Break Nears, Obama and Edwards Spar Over Outside Groups

Hailing Christmas as "the birth of the God of second chances," Bill Clinton introduced his wife as a "giver" and encouraged congregants to vote. He cited the Book of Romans, saying the Bible instructs people to "be good citizens as well as good followers of the Lord."

"For as long as I have known Hillary, she has been giving of herself to benefit others. I think we want that sort of giver to lead our country," he said.

Hillary Clinton has drawn women steadily to her events, holding female-focused appearances in New Hampshire on Saturday and referencing her gender on Sunday. "We've never had a woman president before," she told veterans.

"We need it," an elderly woman shouted from the audience.

Obama braved the storm to attend three town-hall meetings, after five events on Saturday, and also appeared on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Speaking before crowds in central and western Iowa, where at least one-third said they were undecided, Obama added to his stump speech lines intended to address concerns about his candidacy. He repeatedly emphasized that voters should not consider his race a barrier to his being elected, an issue that he has begun discussing publicly in the past week. He also explained why he is running for president now, rather than waiting for more seasoning, by invoking a Martin Luther King Jr. quote about the "fierce urgency of now."

In the past week, a late but extremely muscular effort by independent expenditure groups emerged in Iowa. The issue-oriented groups, known as 527s because of their designation in the federal tax code, are influential because they can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. The only restrictions are that they cannot explicitly urge people to vote for or against a candidate, and they cannot coordinate their efforts with any active campaign.

Three organizations, including two labor unions, have spent more than $2.1 million over the past month in Iowa and New Hampshire to help support Clinton's candidacy. Three more groups, all backed by labor, have spent nearly $1.3 million on Edwards's behalf.

By contrast, there appears to be little independent expenditure activity in Iowa from groups backing Obama. The issue flared over the weekend as Obama criticized efforts of the Alliance for a New America, a group formed by the Service Employees International Union and run by Nick Baldick, who served this year as a top adviser to Edwards.

Last week, the group spent $769,610 to reserve television ads that help promote Edwards's candidacy. Obama aides have questioned how the group could be operating without the inside knowledge that Baldick must have soaked up from his former boss.

Baldick said Sunday that his work for the group has been thoroughly vetted by SEIU's lawyers.

"This is an issue advocacy organization with its own agenda," Baldick said. "There is nothing inappropriate about a former adviser leaving a campaign and later working with an organization that is not about any campaign but about raising issues."

The ease with which political operatives moved between campaigns and independent expenditure groups prompted several legal challenges four years ago, and some are still moving through the courts.

Staff writer Matthew Mosk contributed to this report from Washington.