Republican hopefuls struggle to find edge in uncertain campaign

WASHINGTON – The race ever more chaotic, four Republicans are angling for superiority in a fast-approaching presidential primary in South Carolina, a state known for rough-and-tumble politics and predicting the outcome of the GOP nomination.\nAlthough Nevada holds caucuses Saturday as well, the spotlight is on the first-in-the-South primary; no Republican since 1980 has won the party nod without a South \nCarolina triumph.\n“Truly anything can happen,” Katon Dawson, the state party chairman, said Wednesday, hours after Mitt Romney won his native Midwestern state. “Michigan just shuffled the deck. It’s a whole new game in South Carolina, and, with the undecideds, it can go any way.”\nThe latest South Carolina polls show a close race. A flood of negative phone calls, hard-hitting mail and late-deciders could change that overnight.\nNot even two weeks into voting, three candidates each have one major win thanks to three different constituencies, a reflection of a deeply divided GOP and the absence of an obvious successor to President Bush.\nMike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister, prevailed in the Iowa caucuses with the support of fellow evangelicals. John McCain, the four-term Arizona senator, repeated his 2000 victory in New Hampshire with the overwhelming support of independents. And Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, rallied Republican loyalists to post his first major win in Michigan. Romney also won barely contested Wyoming.\nOn Wednesday, the three set their sights on South Carolina, where rival Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator, has been camping out with hopes of a surprise upset that would upend the race yet again.