LA Times: Kerry has conceded the entire South except Fla. [View All]

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-southwest22oct22,1,5078707.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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Kerry and his aides began the general election pledging to recapture some Southern states -- or at least contest them seriously. His campaign and the Democratic National Committee bought television time in North Carolina, Arkansas, Virginia and Louisiana. And Kerry's selection of Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate seemed designed, in part, to broaden the ticket's appeal in the South.

But Kerry and the DNC have not been on the air with ads in North Carolina since July, Louisiana since August and Arkansas and Virginia since early September, according to the ad tracking.

Tad Devine, a senior Kerry adviser, said the campaign is still considering a final push in either Arkansas or North Carolina. But for all practical purposes, analysts say, Kerry appears to have conceded 141 Electoral College votes across the region to Bush, still contesting only the 27 in Florida.

"It's a replay of the 2000 election, where except for Florida the presidential contest wasn't really close in any of the Southern states," said Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta and the author of several books on Southern politics. As his fallback if he falls short in some of the Midwest's swing states, such as Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin, Kerry increasingly has looked to the Southwest.