Family ties offer boost to Clinton in Pa.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton likes to call any outpost of support “Clinton country,” but in Pennsylvania — where she’s got a long family history and strong political ties — the campaign boast actually rings true.

Family connections give Mrs. Clinton a home-state advantage in Pennsylvania, where she and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois face off April 22 in the next big-state contest of a protracted and bruising campaign for the nomination.

Mrs. Clinton’s run in Pennsylvania gets an added boost from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who spent more than a decade forging steely bonds with the state’s political heavyweights, including Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, both Democrats who endorsed her.

“She has much deeper roots here,” said Terry Madonna, political scientist and director of the public opinion research center at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. “Clinton should win this state.”

The latest Franklin and Marshall College Poll shows Mrs. Clinton, of New York, ahead by 12 points in Pennsylvania. A Rasmussen Reports survey last week showed her up by 15 points.

Obama campaign officials acknowledged their rival’s “huge advantage” in Pennsylvania, a concession that could make anything less than a landslide win for Mrs. Clinton look like a misstep. A close finish also will keep Mr. Obama ahead in the tally of nominating delegates as the race advances beyond the Keystone State, where 158 pledged delegates are at stake.

“She should be expected to win by some margin,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Friday. “But we are going to fight very hard in Pennsylvania. We’ve got a lot of supporters there. We will campaign as hard as we can to get as many delegates as we can.”

He added, “We will be campaigning a lot in Pennsylvania but our campaign won’t be defined by that state.”

Mrs. Clinton’s father, the late Hugh E. Rodham, was born in Scranton, Pa., and graduated from Penn State University before heading to Chicago, where he made his fortune as a textile wholesaler. The former first lady was baptized in Scranton, as were her two brothers. The family spent summers at a cottage on Lake Winola in the nearby Pocono Mountains.

When Mr. Rodham died in 1993, he was buried in Scranton in a funeral that made news and included a presidential motorcade.

Obama supporters say Scranton is one of the urban areas their candidate must carry to counterbalance Mrs. Clinton’s base in the state’s sprawling hinterlands.

Scranton, however, remains a city where many residents proudly remember the Rodhams and Mrs. Clinton as natives. She also has a foothold in Philadelphia, which is 45 percent black — the base of Obama support. Mr. Clinton spent much time in Philadelphia, nurturing a relationship that dates back to the early 1990s, when Mr. Rendell was the mayor and the Clinton administration pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the cash-strapped city.

Mr. Rendell, who stepped down as mayor in 1999 when Mr. Clinton tapped him for Democratic National Committee chairman, is credited with engineering Philadelphia’s renaissance. He remains a popular figure in the city and he has become respected statewide since taking over as governor in January 2003.

Pennsylvania political consultants say Mr. Rendell’s political machine could boost the statewide vote for Mrs. Clinton by as much as three percentage points.

In Philadelphia, Mrs. Clinton has the backing of Mr. Nutter, who is black.

Mr. Clinton returned Friday to Philadelphia to woo support of Democratic ward leaders, 69 elected party officials who so far are withholding endorsements until they hear from the candidates in person.

“The governor and mayor and the party chieftains are with Hillary, but the independent wing — there is a strong independent wing of the Democratic Party — is with Obama,” said Philadelphia City Council member Curtis Jones Jr., who supports Mr. Obama.

“This goes down to individual households [that are] split,” he said of the divide in the city between Clinton loyalists and Obama backers.