February 18, 2004 - 5:30 AM

Kerry wins tight Wisconsin race

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry has held off a strong challenge from John
Edwards to take a narrow win in Wisconsin.

Howard Dean stumbled to a distant third-place finish and will return home to Vermont to ponder his future.

The surprising showing by Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, put a dent in the runaway momentum of Kerry and
kept alive the Democratic race to find a challenger to President George W. Bush in November.

Kerry, who has dominated the race with wins in 15 of the first 17 contests, heads into the March 2 "Super Tuesday"
round of 10 contests in big states like New York and California with a shot at wrapping up the nomination, but will be
challenged by a revitalised Edwards.

"The motto of the state of Wisconsin is forward, and I want to thank the state of Wisconsin for moving this cause and
this campaign forward," Kerry told chanting supporters on Tuesday night.

With nearly three-quarters of the vote counted, Kerry had 39 percent to Edwards' 35 percent with Dean a distant third at
18 percent.

Former front-runner Dean, who once said Wisconsin would be his make-or-break state, finished well behind both of his
main rivals but gave no signal on whether he would pull the plug on his campaign.

"We are not done," a defiant Dean told cheering supporters, saying the other Democratic contenders had adopted his
message and taken stronger positions against Bush.

Edwards heads into the two-week dash to "Super Tuesday" with new momentum from his showing in Wisconsin, where
exit polls showed he was helped by strong support among Republicans and independents, who could vote in the primary.

"Today the voters of Wisconsin sent a clear message," Edwards told supporters in Milwaukee. "The message was this:
Objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear."

Edwards, who has said for weeks that he could reshape the race if he could get into a one-on-one matchup with Kerry,
appeared to have gotten his wish for a two-man race.

CLOSES FAST

He has shown an ability to close fast in a campaign's waning days, making up lots of ground in Iowa to finish a surprise
second and mounting a late charge in Oklahoma two weeks ago to finish a close second ahead of Kerry.

Edwards won the primary in South Carolina comfortably over Kerry. That and Oklahoma are the only two losses
suffered by the Massachusetts senator.

Television network exit polls showed 75 percent of Edwards' supporters made their decision in the last three days, after
he turned in a strong performance in a Sunday debate and picked up major newspaper endorsements in the two biggest
cities, Milwaukee and Madison.

Exit polls also showed two-thirds of Edwards' supporters said issues mattered more than electability in the race
against Bush. Electability has been a key factor in the rise of Kerry.

Edwards, who has emphasised his positive campaign and been reluctant to even mention his rivals by name, had
taken in the past few days to pointing out his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and Kerry's
support for it.

Kerry and his advisers played down the showing by Edwards. "A win is a win," Kerry said before the final results in
contrasting his approach of running in all of the states holding contests to Edwards' decision to run in selected states.

"You can't run for president cherry picking states here and there. You have to run nationally," Kerry said. "I think I've
been the only one in recent weeks who's been doing that."

The primary could be a final stand for Dean, who soared to the top of the polls and broke party fund-raising records in
2003 before crashing in January as Kerry surged.

Dean will return to Vermont to re-evaluate his candidacy amid signs that he could pull the plug. Campaign chairman
Steve Grossman already has bailed out, declaring that a Dean loss in Wisconsin would mean "the race would be
effectively over."

Edwards says he has the money to compete into March and will focus on states like Ohio, Georgia and New York that
have suffered serious job losses.