Larry Eichel reports...

EMILY's List, the national political organization that works to get more women involved in politics, is planning on playing an active role in the Pennsylvania primary on the behalf of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Through its Women Vote! campaign, the group intends to contact 150,000 women, all of them potential Democratic primary voters, in the five congressional districts surrounding Philadelphia. The contacts, which are to start in early April, will be made through the mail and via recorded telephone calls. The goal is to increase the representation of women in the primary electorate. In Ohio, where Clinton beat Barack Obama by 10 percentage points, women represented 59 per cent of those voting, according to the exit polls.

Maren Hesla, who runs the Women Vote! effort, said that voters' focus on the economy works to Clinton's advantage. In her words, voters "see in Sen. Clinton is someone who's better able take on the issue that causes them the most concern, the economy."

According to a poll done for EMILY's List, Clinton led Obama 48 per cent to 35 per cent as of last week. The poll found that Clinton leads among women by 22 per cent and among non-college-educated men by 17 per cent but trails among college-educated men by 25 per cent.