Dean in tie with Kerry on eve of New Hampshire primary

3.00pm - By RUPERT CORNWELL

CONCORD, New Hampshire - Howard Dean, the outspoken former governor of Vermont, has clawed back support and now stands in a virtual tie with front runner John Kerry ahead of tomorrow's vital Democratic primary in New Hampshire, an opinion poll said today.

Most other surveys showed Mr Kerry, the senator from neighbouring Massachusetts, still holding a double digit lead. But the Zogby overnight tracking poll, which detected the late swing towards Mr Kerry before last week's Iowa, put him ahead by just 31 per cent to 28 per cent, well within the statistical margin of error.

The reading, moreover, fits in with the feeling among political professionals here that, with his wife Judith Steinberg Dean beside him on the campaign trail, Mr Dean is beginning to put his Iowa debacle behind him -- at least in this state where he had a massive lead only a few weeks ago.

The Kerry camp too is taking nothing for granted, as it attempts to project its candidate as the only man with the experience and credentials to beat President Bush.

"This is not over," he warned, in a bid to play down expectations while many voters were still undecided.

In its last 24 hours a previously polite campaign heated up as Mr Dean accused his opponents of using dirty tricks against him. "Unfortunately we are seeing a few of these in the Democratic primary," he told an interviewer.

He was not specific, adding only that "it's not nice but you get used to it."

But campaign staff said potential Dean voters had been receiving phone calls, faxes and emails distorting his policy positions, and accusing the former governor of pretending to be Christian when his wife and children were Jewish.

Mr Dean also took another swipe at Mr Kerry's record on Iraq, questioning his judgment in voting in support of the 2003 war with Iraq while opposing the 1991 Gulf war to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.

"Where was John Kerry when George Bush was giving out all this misinformation?," he asked, referring to the failure - ever more embarrassing for the White House - to find Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.


- INDEPENDENT