July 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana threw the first hard elbow this week in what had previously been gentle jostling among the dozen or so Democrats considering a run for the presidency in 2008.

Bayh said helping the middle class should be the party's top priority, a poke at former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, has traveled the country saying that eradicating poverty should be the chief concern of the party and its next nominee.

``We have to do more to help those who are less fortunate in our country, but we can't stop there,'' Bayh said in an interview yesterday. ``We have to help empower our middle class as well.''

Bayh, 50, said Democrats have to win elections in order to help anyone, poor or middle class, and the best route to doing that was gaining middle-class support. While there's no official definition of ``middle class,'' Alastair Fitzpayne, Bayh's legislative assistant, said if it's defined as households earning between $25,000 and $100,000 per year, then 63 million households fit the category. In contrast, 7.9 million American families were living in poverty in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Bayh delivered his message in a speech in Washington this week before flying to Des Moines to give it again. The choice of Des Moines was no accident: Iowa will kick off the race for party nominations in the 2008 presidential race, and Edwards recently came in first in a Des Moines Register poll as the choice of 30 percent of likely voters. Bayh was favored by 2 percent.

Seeing a Niche

``There is no doubt strategically that they each see a niche,'' said David Axelrod, a political consultant who worked for Edwards in 2004 and who is unaligned today. ``John Edwards sees the possibility of rallying the left around these poverty issues, and I think that has never been Bayh's constituency. His constituency is middle-class, middle-American, and that is what he is selling.''

The positioning going on between Bayh and Edwards may foreshadow a larger jockeying within the Democratic pack as each seeks to find a way to approach both Democratic voters in the primary and swing voters in the general election.

Edwards, 53, isn't just depending on the votes of the poor, Axelrod said. He's counting on Americans to champion the cause of the impoverished out of a sense of mission and idealism.

Market for Compassion

``The American people have a big heart; we saw it with Katrina, and there is a market out there for compassion,'' Axelrod said. ``But it is also true that large numbers of people in the middle class are struggling to keep their heads above water, and you can't neglect their experience. There is a natural impulse to care about your own well-being.''

Bayh said that by aiding the middle class ``America will be strong,'' and the Democratic Party ``will once again lead the country.''

Kim Rubey, a spokeswoman for Edwards's One America political action committee, said: ``Senator Edwards's focus has always been on trying to bridge the unacceptable gap between the two Americas, which clearly involves addressing issues facing the middle class. But he feels the country, including the Democratic Party, has been too interested in political positioning and not sufficiently alert to the fundamental moral problem poverty presents.''

Executive Experience

Bayh, who was a two-term governor of Indiana before being elected to the Senate in 1998, yesterday also previewed another point of attack he will use should he decide to enter the Democratic presidential primaries: the difference between his level of experience and those who have been senators but not governors. They include among others Edwards and Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and John Kerry of Massachusetts.

``If I had to choose one or the other to prepare for possibly being president, I'd choose being governor,'' Bayh said. ``You're in charge of running something, you've got a bottom line. It's not just giving speeches and casting votes that very often are just symbolic.''

Bayh also said voters ``intuitively understand'' that the presidency is an executive office and ``it might make sense to have somebody who has some executive ability and a demonstrated track record.''

Only two people in U.S. history have gone directly from the Senate to the presidency: Warren Harding and John F. Kennedy.

Bayh also said he was doing everything he could to aid Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, facing a tough Democratic primary fight because of his vigorous support for the Iraq war.

``I support Joe Lieberman and I hope he wins, and I think he will win,'' Bayh said, ``But is it to be expected and natural and appropriate that we have a vigorous debate about something as significant as a war? Yeah. That is what a democracy is all about.''

Last Updated: July 19, 2006 00:19 EDT