The last weekend before Monday night’s Iowa Caucuses is marked by frenzied campaigning, and some changing strategies. Polls show this race is down to the wire, with four candidates in the hunt, yet polls can’t pinpoint just which Iowa Democrats will attend Monday’s Caucuses, and that’s the wildcard. Undecided and wavering voters are still a concern. And the candidates who’ve stuck to positive television ads — John Kerry and John Edwards — have been rising significantly in the polls and attracting ever-larger crowds. The other two democratic presidential candidates who’ve run negative t-v commercials are backing off that strategy now. Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt will stick to positive t-v messages in the closing hours of this contest. In another development, the Dean campaign unearthed a 1996 statement from John Kerry in which Kerry said the Departments of Energy and Agriculture should be eliminated; the Dean camp suggesting Iowa farmers should be worried about Kerry. Kerry’s campaign dismissed the criticism as another negative attack from Dean, and trotted out a statement from Iowa Ag Secretary Patty Judge, who has endorsed Kerry. Judge said she’d never support a candidate who would harm Iowa’s family farmers, and she said the attack’s a signal Dean is worried about Kerry’s momentum in Iowa.
