Democrats jockeying for position in Wisconsin Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark speaks during a campaign stop at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer) By JR ROSS Associated Press Writer MADISON, Wis. (AP) - With two months to go before Wisconsin's presidential primary, Democratic candidates are building their paid staffs and paying frequent visits to what could be a key state in the race for the nomination. "This is a sign that the Wisconsin primary means something this year, which has not been true very often in the past," said Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Wisconsin vote is gaining added significance because it has been moved up to Feb. 17. In past years, party nominations were virtually decided by the time Wisconsin residents voted in the first week of April. Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said the Wisconsin vote now could be a make-or-break situation for campaigns still standing after the early wave of primaries and caucuses that begin in January. That has former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry with paid campaign staffs already in place in Wisconsin. Also seeking the Democratic nomination are Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun and black activist Al Sharpton from New York. "Wisconsin's a really critical state in the nomination process and a candidate can really position himself to be the candidate of the Democratic Party if he can come in here and win," said Mike Tate, Dean's state director. Dean has made four visits to Wisconsin over the past 13 months and has four full-time staffers split between offices in Madison and Milwaukee, with plans to add two more within the next couple of weeks. He was the first to put a staff member in Wisconsin, back on Aug. 1. Kerry has two staffers, while Clark has put five people in Wisconsin over the last several weeks. John Kraus, who ran Gov. Jim Doyle's 2002 campaign, is Edwards' sole staffer in the state, though the senator expects to add more people soon. Kerry's state director, George Twigg, said, "It's a major advantage just to have a presence here where someone in Wisconsin can pick up a phone and dial a Wisconsin number and talk to somebody who's been in the state," Don Kettl, a UW-Madison political science professor, said that presence also is a sign that some campaigns are picking their battle sites. Clark opted out of organizing a staff in Iowa after getting a late start in the race, believing he didn't have time to do well there, while Gephardt is focusing much of his effort on the nation's first caucus. Lieberman also elected to skip Iowa to focus on other states. "The ones that are most worried about surviving are spending time in those places to keep their heads above water and we're not seeing them as much around here," Kettl said. Campaigning in Green Bay on Tuesday, Clark said Wisconsin was one of the states critical to his campaign's success. He also included Arizona, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Kraus said Edwards is shooting for wins in South Carolina and Oklahoma along with a strong showing in New Hampshire to give him momentum after the first few weeks of primaries. Wisconsin will be key because only Nevada and Washington, D.C., hold caucuses in the week before Wisconsin's vote. No other state has a primary until a week afterward. "I think all the campaigns would agree that undecided voters are leading the pack in this race and will be until the final couple of weeks," Kraus said. "It's really a fight for undecided voters in Wisconsin." A poll of state residents commissioned by Wisconsin Public Radio and the St. Norbert College Survey Center, released earlier this month, found Lieberman with the support of 16 percent of respondents, tops among Democrats. Dean was next at 14 percent and Clark had 12 percent. Support for Sharpton, Edwards, Moseley Braun and Kucinich was at 3 percent or less in the poll. Still, 30 percent of respondents said they weren't sure which candidate they supported. Lee Brown, co-chair of Kucinich's Wisconsin steering committee, said it's been difficult to get news media attention across the country. Here, it's complicated by the fact that the Wisconsin campaign is an all-volunteer effort. "We don't do polished press releases and things like that that we should be doing," Brown said. She added Kucinich will likely only visit Wisconsin again if supporters can put together a fund-raiser for him with a significant turnout. Wisconsin divvies up its delegates to candidates based on their showings in the eight congressional districts. Braun's campaign manager Patricia Ireland, the former president of the National Organization of Women, said she would focus her efforts on the districts where she is most likely to have a good showing, as well as college campuses. Braun also is running a volunteer campaign here. "It is a strategy or an approach that takes into account what our resource strength is," Ireland said. ___ On the Net: Carol Moseley Braun: http://www.carolforpresident.com/ Wesley Clark: http://www.clark04.com/ Howard Dean: http://www.deanforamerica.com/ John Edwards: http://www.johnedwards2004.com/ Dick Gephardt: http://www.dickgephardt2004.com/ John Kerry: http://www.johnkerry.com/ Dennis Kucinich: http://www.kucinich.us/ Joe Lieberman: http://www.joe2004.com/ Al Sharpton: http://www.al2004.org/