Saturday, April 26, 2008; A04

VOTER REGISTRATION

Pivoting to general-election mode, Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign announced yesterday a 50-state voter registration drive that will kick off four days after the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.

"Vote for Change" will summon the volunteer army that Obama has amassed in the 47 states and territories that have already held primaries or caucuses this year, along with the nine yet to come. Deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand described the effort as a "sustained six-month campaign" aimed at driving up turnout for all Democratic candidates in November.

Obama's campaign already has waged aggressive turnout drives in individual states, including Pennsylvania, where nearly 230,000 Democrats registered before the April 22 primary, many of them Obama supporters; North Carolina, where 165,000 new voters of varying candidate preferences have registered; and Indiana, where the voter rolls have swelled by more than 150,000.

The program's other aim is to signal to Democratic leaders and, in particular, uncommitted superdelegates that Obama is the stronger general-election candidate. His 50-state strategy may have cost him votes in big states such as California, but Hildebrand and others have long argued that the result of having campaigned everywhere is a nationwide grass-roots organization unlike any ever created by a presidential candidate.

Hildebrand cited Wyoming as an example. The March 8 caucus state got little attention from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and it's a long shot as a Democratic pickup in the presidential election. But Obama, who beat Clinton in Wyoming easily, built a volunteer team there that can now be dispatched to aid Gary Trauner, who lost a 2006 race for the state's at-large House seat by 1,000 votes. Trauner has a better shot this year: The GOP incumbent who beat him, Rep. Barbara Cubin, is retiring. "We're looking for opportunities beyond the presidential campaign," Hildebrand said.

He confirmed that the campaign also is close to cutting a deal with the Democratic National Committee to conduct joint fundraising, an effort initiated by the DNC, which is seeking a similar deal with Clinton's campaign. "It is something that we're moving forward with," Hildebrand said.

-- Shailagh Murray

GARY, Ind. -- Hillary Clinton, who vowed earlier this month to stay in the race until Democratic officials figured out a way to seat the delegations of Michigan and Florida at the party's national convention in August, hinted yesterday that she might reconsider the state of her campaign if she loses in Indiana.

In satellite interviews with television stations in Indiana and Kentucky, Clinton three times sidestepped questions about whether she would remain in the race if she lost Indiana's May 6 primary.

"We have a long way to go," Clinton told a Louisville station when asked if she would campaign in Kentucky if she lost Indiana. "I'm looking forward to coming up to Kentucky." The Bluegrass State holds a primary on May 20.

Pressed on the question, she said, "Well, I don't make any predictions or speculate on things that haven't happened yet."

Asked a similar question by a station in Evansville, Ind., she hewed to her message and avoided future commitments. "I'm thinking about how I'm going to do well in Indiana," she said.

More than a week before critical votes in Indiana and North Carolina, Clinton spent yesterday making stops in Obama country. The senator started off in Jacksonville, N.C., challenging Obama to a debate in the Tar Heel State four different times in a single speech. Obama holds a double-digit lead in some North Carolina polls and has not committed to a debate there.

Clinton then flew to Indiana, holding a rally at the University of Indiana at Bloomington and events in Gary and East Chicago, Ind., areas close to Chicago that are likely to be strongholds for her opponent. Clinton aides said that they hope to limit Obama's margin in areas where he is strong, and that the former first lady is determined to keep wooing college students and blacks no matter how strong Obama is among those groups.

Though polls show a deadlocked race in Indiana, Clinton cast herself as the underdog.

"It's going to be a tough state for me. About 25 percent of the state gets media from Chicago, which is certainly an advantage for Senator Obama," she said in an interview with an Evansville television station. "He is running a lot of ads, outspending me."

-- Perry Bacon Jr.

A nonprofit group seeking to energize manufacturing and steelworkers has launched a new phase of an unorthodox advertising campaign called "China Cheats."

The Alliance for American Manufacturing, a project of the United Steelworkers union, U.S. Steel and Allegheny Technologies, launched the campaign in Pennsylvania and is now moving it into Indiana.

Newspapers in seven Indiana media markets -- Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend, Terre Haute and two outlets in northwest Indiana -- will be publishing the "China Cheats" ad, which demands that presidential candidates enforce trade laws with China.

Efforts to engage the group's target audience -- blue-collar workers -- stand to benefit Hillary Clinton, who saw a significant edge in support in western Pennsylvania's steel towns.

The alliance is also planning radio ads in Indiana and a candidate forum in the state. It has launched a campaign blog monitoring candidate statements about trade and the economy. One Indiana newspaper reported that the group bought print advertising worth $250,000, but little is known about the group's overall spending plans.

The group's director, Scott Paul, said in a statement that the goal is to urge presidential candidates to speak out and to hold China accountable for unfair trade practices that result in job losses. "Voters who care about the economy are the dominant demographic for the primary candidates," he said. "The candidate who clearly commits to solving the China crisis is going to win Indiana."

-- Matthew Mosk