INDIANAPOLIS - Broadening his attack, Barack Obama said yesterday that Hillary Clinton's support for a summertime break from the federal gasoline tax symbolizes a candidacy consisting of "phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems."

Not so, Clinton told a campaign audience as the next round of primaries approaches. Obama is "attacking my plan to try to get you some kind of break this summer," she said.

Locked in a Democratic presidential race for the ages, Clinton and Obama campaigned across Indiana and North Carolina at the same time they competed in Guam's caucuses and added to their convention delegate totals in several states.

With Obama winning the Guam contests, the Associated Press total showed Obama with 1,742.5 delegates to Clinton's 1,606.5. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination.

Obama campaigned with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Sasha, 6, and Malia, 9.

Both candidates are airing ads on the the gasoline issue, and Obama said in his speech that Clinton "had to send a surrogate to speak out on behalf of this plan and all she could find - get this, a lobbyist from Shell Oil to explain how this was going to be good for consumers."

Phil Singer, a spokesman for Clinton, responded: "Considering that Senator Obama voted to suspend the gas tax three times when gas cost less than $2 a gallon and has an energy lobbyist chairing his Indiana campaign, it's hard to take his latest criticisms very seriously."

Clinton and Senator John McCain, the expected Republican nominee, have both proposed suspending the levy from Memorial Day to Labor Day as a way of providing relief from record gasoline prices. Obama opposes the plan, saying it would save a mere 30 cents a day and cost thousands of construction jobs.

Money from the tax goes into a federal fund that pays for highway projects.

Beyond the arguments for and against the tax, the issue has assumed a far larger significance in recent days, Clinton using it to buttress her argument that her rival is out of touch with the needs of working-class Americans, Obama citing it as an example of his opponent's embrace of what he calls old-style politics.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maine GOP fends off challenge to McCain slate

Maine's Republican Party regulars fended off platform challenges partly fueled by a libertarian bloc led by Ron Paul supporters at the GOP state convention yesterday. They elected a full 12-member slate of at-large delegates endorsed by John McCain's campaign to the September national convention.

Julie O'Brien, executive director of the State Republican Party, said it appeared that one of 18 elected national delegates - three were chosen from each of the state's two congressional districts - would be a Paul supporter.

The at-large slate was led by Republican establishment figures including US Senator Olympia J. Snowe and her husband, former governor John McKernan, as well as the two highest ranking Republican legislators, state Senate minority leader Carol Weston of Montville and House minority leader Josh Tardy of Newport.

Also winning election as a national delegate was Charles Summers, one of the two candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Maine's open First Congressional District seat. Summers is the former regional director of the Small Business Administration.

Summers is a former legislator and congressional candidate who has been on active duty in Iraq as a US Navy reservist.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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