Boston Globe: In smallest N.E. states, big battles
Rival camps contend for every delegate
By Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | March 2, 2008
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - Barack Obama's state campaign has made its temporary home in a tiny art gallery, tucked into one of the picturesque brick buildings lining Main Street. Surrounded by paintings in brilliant hues, a handful of volunteers in sweaters and jeans dial voters on their cellphones. "The gallery was built on passion, and the art I show is from passionate artists," said Catherine Dianich Gruver, the gallery's owner and curator. "Why wouldn't I support someone running for president that is so passionate about his ideals?"
About 140 miles to the southeast, the Hillary Clinton campaign in Rhode Island has set up shop in a squat brick building alongside a traffic-clogged intersection in Providence. A room cluttered with yard signs buzzes with activity - phone calls, meetings, people gathering to canvass. "We had a meeting just now with folks who drive taxis," said state Senator Juan Pichardo. "They're saying, 'We're strong with Hillary here in Providence.' "
The two states, in opposite corners of New England, will hold presidential primaries on Tuesday, and their electorates represent different faces of the Democratic Party where Obama and Clinton have drawn the most strength.
In Vermont, where polls show Obama is 15 or 20 percentage points ahead, voters are better educated and mostly white; they strongly favor grassroots campaigns and have shown a great fondness for political iconoclasts. In Rhode Island, where Clinton is clinging to a lead, the electorate is largely working class, Hispanics are becoming more influential, and an old-school Democratic machine remains largely intact.
Most of the focus in recent days has been on Ohio and Texas, which will award nearly eight times as many delegates combined on Tuesday as Vermont and Rhode Island - and whose votes could determine whether Clinton continues her campaign. But in the closest primary campaign in a generation, neither candidate can afford to surrender a single delegate, so both are devoting unprecedented attention to New England's smallest states. Over the last week, the race has grown especially heated in Rhode Island, where a recent Brown University poll shows Obama within 8 percentage points of Clinton....
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