January 18, 2008	Friday	Muharram 08, 1429

COLUMBIA: Gloves have come off in the closely fought White House race as Republican and Democratic hopefuls head into potentially watershed contests in South Carolina and Nevada this weekend.

With Republicans zeroing in on the conservative southern state of South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on Saturday, John McCain faced a reprise of tough tactics that lost him the state eight years ago.

And in the western gambling state of Nevada, politically powerful unions waged a legal battle over the use of casinos as caucus sites, rich with implications for the Democratic race.

The fight for the Republican presidential nomination is wide open, with three different victors in its three major contests thus far, and all eyes were on South Carolina to see how its conservative voters and bare-knuckle politics could shape the race.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney barely got a day to savour his Michigan victory before the battlefront moved south to South Carolina, where he is trailing McCain, who won New Hampshire, and Mike Huckabee, who swept Iowa.

South Carolina is renowned for its brew of political dirty tricks, hawkish national security voters, and influential anti-abortion, pro-gun rights evangelical conservatives, who may favour former Baptist minister Huckabee.

“On the issues that really matter to social conservatives, consistency on pro-life and pro-marriage ... Second Amendment issues, it’s the whole package for people in South Carolina, they’re very conservative,” Huckabee told Fox News channel on Wednesday.

“That’s why we feel like we’re going to win here.” The latest Zogby poll heralded a tough battle in the state, with McCain ahead at 29 per cent, Huckabee second with 23 per cent and Romney in third with 13 per cent.

Amid such high stakes, McCain’s campaign intercepted a flyer by a shadowy group called Vietnam Veterans Against McCain which said he had sold out his comrades when he was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

The incident smacked of notorious allegations in the 2000 campaign in South Carolina that McCain had fathered an African-American baby out of wedlock, a bogus story that cost him the state and ultimately the party nomination.

His campaign quickly fought back on Wednesday.

“The group claims that John McCain turned his back on his fellow POWs in order to save his own skin,” said Orson Swindle, a McCain aide who is also a former North Vietnamese POW.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. I know because I was there.”

McCain said he had assembled “a truth squad” of respected local leaders to track and respond to any dirty tricks this time around.

“I just don’t think that the people of South Carolina like that very much,” he said of the tactics. “And I think we’ll be able to rebut it and put it down.” Democratic contenders focused on Saturday’s caucuses in Nevada, a western state of 2.5 million people with a large Hispanic population that is hosting the Democratic Party’s third major test this year.

Nevada marks the first significant opportunity Latino voters have had to weigh in on the 2008 presidential race, with immigration a burning political topic.

Nevada’s Hispanic population — which has increased by 400 per cent since 1990 to more than 610,000 — is estimated at around 24 per cent, though the number who are eligible to vote is put at around 12 per cent.

Of those eligible voters, many belong to the 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union, an influential grouping consisting primarily of casino workers that last week announced it had endorsed Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Nine hotels or casinos along the main strip of the gambling hub of Las Vegas are to be used as Democratic caucus sites, making it easier for casino workers — most of them low-income minorities — to participate.

But in a dramatic twist, shortly after the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama, a teachers union sued the Nevada Democratic Party over the casino caucus sites, saying it gave casino workers an unfair advantage over other working voters.

A ruling in the case is expected on Thursday or Friday.

Obama held a narrow lead over rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in a Jan 11-13 Reno Gazette-Journal poll, which showed him with 32 per cent support, Clinton with 30 and Edwards with 27.—AFP