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Obama and Clinton look westward for support in primaries

With no end in sight to the hard-fought Democratic presidential battle, senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were already launching their campaigns in western states that will be among the last to hold primary contests.

Obama and Clinton were scraping for every last nominating convention delegate in a contest that is now expected to continue through the last scheduled primary contests on June 3 in South Dakota and Montana.

At the start of the primary season, Montana Democrats had little reason to expect that the presidential candidates would be paying much attention to their state’s primary, in which only 17 delegates are at stake.

But on Saturday evening, both Clinton and Obama were scheduled to speak at the state party’s annual dinner in Butte, which was expected to draw about 4,000 Democratic activists.

Obama mocked the suggestion from Clinton’s campaign earlier this year that his lead was suspect because he won lightly contested small states that hold caucuses, while losing some big states with primary elections.

“There are people saying Obama wins all these little states, all these caucus states, these small little Western states. I don’t know about you, but I think they’re pretty important,” Obama told the crowd.

And in a state where more than 6 percent of the population is American-Indian, Obama talked about improving health and education for Native Americans. He promised to appoint a senior White House adviser on the subject and host an annual meeting of tribal leaders.

Clinton began the day by making her first presidential campaign visit to Oregon, which holds its primary on May 20. Several thousand people packed a gymnasium at a high school in Hillsboro to hear Clinton.

Clinton focused on the environment, saying the state was a role model for the use of wind power.

She promised investments in “green manufacturing,” and to remove tax subsidies for big oil companies.
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