By Pamela Gentry, Senior Poltical Producer

Posted March 3, 2008 – In less than 24 hours folks in four states will head to the polls and most likely determine who will be the Democratic nominee.

While dueling television campaign ads heated up the airwaves this weekend in Texas and Ohio, some Democratic leaders have started to suggest to Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) that she should prepare a “bow out” strategy if she doesn’t land decisive wins Tuesday.

Gov. Bill Richardson (D- N.M.) is just one of several senior party officials wanting her to withdraw from the race is she can’t win big on Tuesday.  “I just think D-Day is Tuesday,” he said.  Richardson ended his campaign several months ago, but hasn’t endorsed either Clinton or Obama.

But Democratic Senators John Kerry (Mass.) and Dick Durbin (Ill.), both Obama supporters agree with Richardson.  They’ve suggested Clinton pull out if Tuesday’s race leaves her trailing Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in pledged delegates.

In a recent polls of Texas voters by McClatchy Newspapers, MSNBC and the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Obama was leading with 46 percent of the support of  likely voters to Clinton 45 percent.

The race is just as close in Ohio.  A survey by The Cleveland Plain Dealer conducted by the Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, Inc., finds Clinton leading with 47 percent to Obama’s 43 percent in the Buckeye state.   With the margin of error for both of these poll’s four to five percent, the races are too close to call.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) is heading to Ohio to campaign for Obama.  “Ohio has emerged again as the epicenter of a presidential campaign because of its importance to a Democratic victory in November and because of the notorious difficultly of [Democrats] carrying the state,” she said.

Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, a New Yorker, is heading to Cleveland to campaign for Obama as well.  Over the weekend Simmons announced he was endorsing the Illinois senator.  In a statement, Simmons said, “Obama has built an unprecedented national movement of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds.”

Former President Bill Clinton told folks at a rally in Houston Sunday, “If somebody is here and they are undecided or you are trying to reach somebody who is undecided, here’s my best advice; Ask them to decide how they will judge the next president when the president’s term is over, not how you feel today at a rally,” he challenged.

Clinton supporters are confident she will pull out the wins needed to stay in the race. 
 

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