Clinton Spurns Calls to Quit Race

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Clinton Pushes on to West Virginia

Sen. Hillary Clinton continued her campaign in West Virginia Wednesday, a day after scoring a slight victory in Indiana and losing the North Carolina primary to Sen. Barack Obama.

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Obama's huge financial advantage looms as a significant problem for Clinton. At a fundraiser in Washington last night, at which she was hoping to raise about $500,000, she reiterated that she would stay in the race and said to those concerned about the drawn-out contest that "there is no cause for alarm," adding: "Sometimes you've got to calm people down a little bit."

"We have to figure out who would be the stronger candidate," Clinton said. "We have plenty of time to make the case against John McCain. I landed in New Hampshire on a Thursday night nine points down and I won on Tuesday."

She appealed for money in her speech on Tuesday night and the campaign issued an e-mail request hours later. Her advisers indicated yesterday that she has not ruled out lending her campaign more money.

Clinton advisers sketched out a scenario that they said could still deliver the nomination, though they acknowledged privately that the odds are long. It includes winning three of the final six primaries -- West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico -- and holding down Obama's margin in Oregon or even winning the state. Obama is favored in Montana and South Dakota.

Next, Clinton still hopes to win the battle over seating disputed delegations from Florida and Michigan with full voting rights. Keeping alive this fight, at a minimum, gives the Clinton team the opportunity to argue that Obama will need more than 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee plans to meet May 31 to take up the two states' challenges.

If all the Florida and Michigan delegates were seated and voting, the winning number would be 2,209. Clinton's campaign wants superdelegates to accept its logic that Obama is further from the magic number than his campaign says.

Finally, Clinton needs to prevent Obama from winning endorsements from a substantial number of uncommitted superdelegates before the primaries end. "If enough move, that's it," one Clinton adviser said.

The Clinton team booked a room at a Capitol Hill restaurant for a meeting with superdelegates. The campaign described it as a casual gathering for their liaisons but canceled it when told that the House was in an uproar over the housing bill and so nobody could come.

Clinton did meet with some uncommitted superdelegates individually. House Budget Committee Chairman John M. Spratt Jr. (S.C.) told her cordially that his state had gone overwhelmingly for Obama, and that he could not endorse her, Spratt spokesman Chuck Fant said. He pledged to stay neutral for now.

One Clinton adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be frank, said: "If the supers weren't buying it before, it's hard to see how they'll buy it now."

Bacon was traveling with Clinton in West Virginia. Staff writers Jonathan Weisman in Washington and Anita Kumar in Richmond contributed to this report.