Dawn Crawford vs Dirty County Politicians and  Officials

Tampa, Fla.-- The fight for the Democratic presidential nomination moved to Florida today, as front-runner Barack Obama began a three-day swing with rallies in Tampa and Kissimmee and Hillary Rodham Clinton pressed her case in Boca Raton and Miami to seat delegates elected in disputed primaries in Florida and Michigan.

One day after winning a majority of elected delegates, Obama returned to Florida for the first time in almost a year, seeking to mend fences in a state whose primary was discounted by the Democratic National Committee because state officials accelerated the date of its primary. Saying "it's good to be back in Florida," Obama thanked a rally of 15,000 at Tampa's St. Pete Times Forum for "holding down the fort."

When Floridians went to the polls on Jan. 29, Obama and other Democratic candidates did not campaign in the state in deference to the national party's wishes. Clinton won the vote, 50% to Obama's 33%, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards winning 14%. Ever since, Clinton has been lobbying to get the Florida delegates seated.

At an event in Boca Raton, Clinton insisted that party rules should not disenfranchise voters.

"The people who voted did nothing wrong, and it would be wrong to punish you," she said today. "It's very clear what 1.7 million people intended here in Florida."

The DNC rules and bylaws committee is holding a meeting May 31 to consider solutions to the Florida and Michigan issues, and both campaigns have made suggestions on how to apportion the votes. Noting that "the road to the White House runs right through Florida and Michigan," Clinton warned that unless Democrats count the votes of Michigan and Florida primary voters, they risk losing them in the fall to the Republicans, who will remind them not to trust the Democrats.

"We should keep that faith, listen to those voices and count every one of those votes," she said.

Obama, looking toward the fall campaign when Florida could be a battleground state, turned his attention from Clinton to Republican John McCain. Noting that 10 years ago the Arizona Republican called for a ban on registered lobbyists in campaigns, Obama said the Arizona senator now has some of the top lobbyists in Washington running his political campaign.

"JohnMcCain then would be pretty disappointed with John McCain now," he said, positing the election as a contest between "a third term for George Bush" and "an election taking on the root causes of special interest dominated politics."

McCain has been criticizing Obama for suggesting he would reach out diplomatically to dictatorships, calling the Illinois senator "reckless." Obama countered today that McCain's "whole foreign policy is 'I won't talk to that guy,' and 'I won't talk to that guy.' ... He wants to perpetuate the same errors that George Bush made that cost us so much in blood and treasure" in Iraq.

The enthusiastic crowd interrupted him several times with cheers and chants of "Yes we can." In a nod to the state's Latino population, Obama used the original Spanish version of this favorite campaign refrain in his speech.

"We can't wait to fix our schools, we can't wait to fix our healthcare system, we can't wait to bring good wages and jobs to Tampa, we can't wait to end this war in Iraq," he said. "Si se puede. Yes we can. That's what the American people are looking for."

Michael Archibald, 40, a Tampa attorney, brought his 10-year-old son Tahjon to see Obama. He acknowledged that the Illinois senator has an uphill battle here, especially after being absent for so long.

"Certainly, Sen. Obama is going to have to spend time here," he said. "It's doable. If nothing else, he can close the gap."

Archibald said Floridians don't feel left out of the media glare that has accompanied Obama and Clinton to virtually every state in their drawn-out primary fight. "We got enough publicity in 2000," he said, referring to the contest between Al Gore and George Bush for the state's electoral votes.

Donna Powell, 39, a psychology student at St. Petersburg College, said the epic battle between the two Democrats may have introduced Obama to Florida voters even though he stayed away from the state.

"The whole Hillary thing, I know it's a pain, but at the same time it's giving more people exposure to Barack Obama," Powell said.

Before Obama spoke, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio endorsed him, calling him a man with "uncommon gifts," including an ability to connect with voters. Obama also racked up another superdelegate today when Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut, whose district voted for Clinton in that state's Feb. 5 primary, joined the Obama team.

With only a fewprimaries remaining -- June 1 in Puerto Rico and June 3 in Montana and South Dakota -- the Clinton campaign vowed to continue.

"Why can't Sen. Obama close the deal?" Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said on MSNBC today. "Her message is working. . . . We have three contests to go, 13 days to go, let's let the voters decide."

McAuliffe hinted that the campaign might continue until the Democratic National Convention in August.

"Superdelegates do not vote until the convention," he said. "On we go."

Obama supporters, careful to show deference to Clinton's gritty campaign, countered that after the last primaries June 3, Democrats needed to rally behind the Illinois senator.

"After June 3 . . . the time has come to unite behind a nominee and get planning for a very tough fall campaign," New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said on CNN this morning, adding that continued infighting had allowed McCain to "go out to Democratic states and take over Democratic issues."

Exit polls from Tuesday's results in Oregon and Kentucky showed a tale of two states, with Obama winning white voters in Oregon, 55% to 43%, while Clinton carried white votes in Kentucky, 72% to 23%. Clinton has said that she is more electable than Obama among so-called Reagan Democrats in Kentucky, West Virginia and throughout the Appalachian Mountain region.

Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado, who was Democrat George McGovern's campaign manager in 1972 and later a presidential candidate, said that if the division between upper-class liberals and Reagan Democrats "holds true, then it is a problem."

"But I don't think that's going to hold true," he said.

Hart said Obama had started to unite the party, adding, "He has already, wisely I think, begun the fall campaign."

johanna.neuman@latimes.com