In Texas: Clinton has history and Obama has buzz

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton likes to remind Texansthat she first came here to ask for their votes in 1972 as ayoung Democratic campaign worker.

"She's got history in Texas," said Doug Hattaway, a Clintonadviser who worked on Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000.

But her rival, Barack Obama, has more recent history on hisside -- 10 straight wins in state votes that have turned himfrom underdog into the front-runner for the Democraticnomination to run for the White House in November's election.

With its 228 delegates to the Democratic convention up forgrabs on March 4, Texas is crucial to Clinton's hopes ofstaying in the U.S. presidential race. If Obama pulls off avictory in Texas, as well as Ohio, which votes on the same day,his winning streak could be unstoppable.

Clinton has tried to play down the idea that March 4 ismake or break for her, pointing out on Saturday there areplenty of states ahead and that her husband, former PresidentBill Clinton, did not win the Democratic nomination until Juneof 1992.

Hattaway said she was playing to win. "We're stillvirtually tied in the delegate count and there's not likely tobe a huge shift in that after Ohio and Texas," he told Reuters.

With neither candidate likely to secure the 2,025 delegatesneeded to win the nomination outright before the convention, aclose result in Texas and Ohio, or a win for Clinton, wouldleave everything still in play. But if she were to lose badly,pressure would increase for her to quit the race.

Clinton's history in Texas dates from 1972, when she workedon Democrat George McGovern's presidential campaign registeringvoters. Her team also points to the popularity of formerPresident Clinton among Hispanic voters, a quarter of the Texaselectorate.

Obama's state director for Texas, Adrian Saenz, said thecampaign understood the bar was high because of the Clintons'history and popularity. He said Obama, an Illinois senator whowould be the first black U.S. president if elected, had spreadhis resources throughout the state to counter Clinton'sstrength, especially among Hispanics.

"The notion was that Senator Clinton was really strong insouth Texas and that was Clinton country down there," he said."She was down there this week and drew a crowd. We were downthere a couple days later and drew a crowd that was almosttwice as big."

Saenz said Obama's campaign had some 125,000 volunteersstatewide and a few hundred volunteers had recently come infrom other states.

ADVERTISING STATEWIDE

Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first womanpresident if elected, launched two new ads on Saturday thatwill play statewide. One focused on her message that Obama isall talk and no action: "In Texas it's better done than said."

On Saturday, Clinton said it was common knowledge Obama hadraised more money than she did in January, which was reflectedin the results -- apparently acknowledging reports that she didnot spend enough on advertising in states such as Wisconsin.

"As I think everybody knows we've been competing hard butwe've not been able to compete everywhere. We now have theresources to do exactly that," Clinton told reporters in Ohio.

She said her campaign was raising $1 million a day on theInternet and has fund-raisers in Boston and Washington in thecoming days before returning to Ohio and Texas to campaign.

Saenz said Obama's campaign started ads in Texas soon afterthe February 5 "Super Tuesday" contests among 24 states, muchearlier than Clinton. "Folks understand that Texas is going tomatter a lot more in who wins the nomination than it hasbefore, than it has in a long time," he said.

Bill Clinton has been campaigning in Texas in recent daysand will continue, Hattaway said, and the Clintons' daughterChelsea will focus on young voters. Mobilizing Latino voterswould be important for Clinton, he said.

Hattaway said the fact that a third of the delegates willbe allocated at a caucus after the popular vote was a challengesince the format tended to disenfranchise lower income votersand working mothers.

"Those have tended to be our voters," he said.

Obama has a good history in caucus states where grass-rootsorganization and canvassing are key to the process thatinvolves people gathering in groups to choose their candidates.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason with Obama; editing byVicki Allen)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visitReuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online athttp://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)