Republican Thompson to focus on Iowa for now

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson, looking to jump-start his lagging campaign, will focus on Iowa for the next three weeks in the hope a strong showing will create momentum for him in later contests.

Thompson will campaign in Iowa nearly every day, with a brief break for the Christmas holidays, until the state's January 3 kick-off nominating contest, spokesman Jeff Sadosky said on Tuesday. The stretch will begin with a bus tour of the state next week.

"We want to use a strong finish in Iowa to catapult us ahead to the later states," Sadosky said.

Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and Hollywood actor, has been sliding in polls and facing criticism for waging a lackluster race that included too little time on the campaign trail leading toward the nomination of his party's candidate for the November 2008 presidential election.

His campaign stops largely had bypassed the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire to concentrate on contests later in January in South Carolina and Florida. But Thompson also trails in polls in those two Southern states, leaving him few options.

Sadosky said the decision to focus on Iowa was not a change of strategy or an acknowledgment Thompson's campaign was failing to catch on in other states.

"It's an acknowledgment that Iowa goes first," he said. "I think the goal all along has been to build a strategic bridge from Iowa to South Carolina and then Florida and beyond to the February 5 states."

On that potentially decisive showdown day in February more than 20 states hold contests, including California and New York.

The announcement of Thompson's plans came the day before a debate in Iowa featuring the Republican candidates, and three weeks before Iowa opens the battle to pick Republican and Democratic candidates for the November election.

Thompson has languished in fifth and sometimes sixth place in recent polls in New Hampshire, which follows Iowa's contest by five days. But polls show Thompson in a tight battle for third in Iowa behind the two clear leaders, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Two of his rivals for third place in Iowa, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain, also have focused most of their attention on later states -- Giuliani on the February 5 states and McCain on New Hampshire.

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)