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LIFE AFTER NEW HAMPSHIRE

Candidates Split Up, Fan Out, Looking to Prove Themselves

With the New Hampshire primary only a faint memory and Super Tuesday looming ahead, the seven presidential candidate have fanned out across the country, each with something to prove.

Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, who won in New Hampshire on Tuesday, acknowledges that he needs a victory outside of the Northeast to prove that he is more than a regional candidate.

He thinks he can find that victory on March 3 in Maryland, where he spent Wednesday and part of yesterday campaigning.

But he didn't get much help from Democrats in nearby Washington, D.C., where the House speaker yesterday mistakenly called Tsongas "Senator Dukakis."

Tsongas has also spent time this week at fundraisers in New York, trying to fill the coffers for his national campaign.

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Struggling to win contributions at first, his first place finish on Tuesday has brought in an avalanche of donations.

According to The Associated Press, Tsongas raised nearly $400,000 in the past three days, more than he garnered in the entire third quarter of last year.

Tsongas now takes his campaign to Maine for Sunday's caucuses. All his opponents except former Gov. Edmund G. Brown have conceded the state and Tsongas is expected to win.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton is heading South to his home turf, focusing first on Georgia's March 3 primary. He will try to raise more money and build support in the states that vote on Super Tuesday.

Clinton has already begun attacks on Tsongas in the South, though he is letting political friends do the dirty work.

At a Clinton event in Atlanta on Wednesday, Georgia Gov. Zell Miller criticized what he called the former senator's "soft" stand on the death penalty--which Clinton proudly supports.

The Republican race is also expected to heat up in Georgia, where conservative columnist Patrick J. Buchanan has chosen to clash next with President Bush.

Buchanan, who received nearly 40 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, faces a uphill fight in the South. He hopes to capitalize on discontent with President Bush to score a primary victory.

In an interview with CBS News, Buchanan said that a clear win over Bush is essential to making his campaign more than a protest candidacy.

President Bush, however, says that he will permit no such thing. The president travelled to Tennessee Wednesday to drum up support and is beginning to take Buchanan seriously.

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