Early Voting In Texas Begins Tuesday

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Early voting begins Tuesday in Texas, the biggest prize left in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

While neither Sen. Barack Obama nor Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton were in the state on Monday, each had plenty of people campaigning in Texas for them.

Presumptive Republican nominee John McCain stopped in Houston long enough to pick up the endorsement for former President George H.W. Bush, but left immediately after.

Early voting runs through Feb. 29 in Texas, where voters can cast their ballots at any early voting location anywhere in the state.

It has become increasingly popular, with nearly 40 percent of the 4.3 million votes cast in the 2006 Senate race coming from early voters.

Following weekend stumping in Texas by former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Clinton’s former housing secretary, Henry Cisneros, planned several events in Houston on Monday for Hillary Clinton.

Clinton spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said many of the events featuring Hillary Clinton will be held near early voting sites.

“We encourage everybody to vote early because you never know what’s going to happen on Election Day,” Elrod said.

The Clinton campaign will run a statewide television ad in English and Spanish featuring Cisneros, former San Antonio mayor, talking about the importance of early voting.

Obama’s campaign opened offices in Houston and Corpus Christi on Monday and supporters planned to discuss the Illinois senator’s platform over barbecue in Waco. The Houston office opening was to be headlined by U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houstaon, and several other state officials. The campaign also planned to block walk in San Antonio.

Obama will begin a four-day trip to Texas on Tuesday, said Nick Shapiro, a spokesman for Obama’s Texas campaign.

“What we’ve seen in the past is whenever the senator has a chance to meet the voters and the voters have a chance to meet with him, we’re winning them over,” Shapiro said.

Hector Nieto, spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, said he expects intense get-out-the-vote efforts from both campaigns starting with early voting.

“I think early voting is going to play an important role,” Nieto said. “Texas is playing an important role so you’re going to see troops on the ground from both campaigns.”

At the University of Texas at Austin, where Obama and Clinton will debate Thursday, college Democrats were celebrating the beginning of early voting with an overnight rally intended to encourage students to vote when a campus polling location opens at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

In San Marcos, south of Austin, former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s grandson, Lyndon Nugent, headlined an organizing meeting for the Obama campaign.

Wisconsin is holding its primary on Tuesday, and Hawaii, Obama’s native state, holds Democratic caucuses the same day. Obama planned a rally in Wisconsin Monday night after stops in Ohio, and Clinton was spending the day in Wisconsin.

After that, the March 4 primary states will be the focus for the two candidates, who remain in a tight delegate race.

Texas doles out 228 delegates on March 4 and Ohio has 161. Vermont and Rhode Island also vote on March 4, with a combined 55 delegates.

Obama planned to visit San Antonio and Houston on Tuesday and the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Wednesday. Clinton was to be in McAllen on Wednesday.

McCain is well ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the GOP delegate race. Some Huckabee supporters were holding a rally in Austin on Tuesday.