COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the Democratic presidential candidates dashed around South Carolina yesterday making last-minute appeals to voters who will cast their ballots in today's primary, their Republican counterparts wooed Cuban-American voters in Miami at a gathering organized by a powerful Latino trade organization.

The campaign day began with a kerfuffle on the Democratic side that prompted former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards to complain that his rivals had brought "New York and Chicago politics to South Carolina."

During an interview on NBC's "Today Show," New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was shown a photo of herself and former President Bill Clinton smiling and flanking indicted Chicago developer Tony Rezko. It was the same Rezko who Clinton derided as the "slum landlord" supporter and former legal client of rival Illinois Sen. Barack Obama during Monday's debate.

CLINTON DENIES TIE

Clinton told host Matt Lauer she didn't recall meeting Rezko, saying, "You know, I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures." The photo is undated but clearly taken several years ago, given the appearance and hairstyles of the Clintons and Rezko.

Lauer said NBC News believes the photo was taken while Clinton was president. During that period, the Clintons often were photographed with donors at various party fundraisers and records show that Rezko was a party contributor in 1996 and in 2000.

"There's a big difference between ... taking a picture with someone you don't know and haven't seen since, and having a relationship that, you know, the newspapers in Chicago have been exploring," Clinton said.

Obama hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing involving Rezko and has insisted that he never used his office to benefit the developer. The Obama campaign already has given to charity more than $85,000 in contributions linked to Rezko, who is about to stand trial on federal fraud and extortion charges.

Clinton's first campaign stop of the day was at Columbia's Benedict College, a historically black school, where she spoke about expanding access to college education. Joining her were Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and former New York Mayor David Dinkins.

Rangel went straight to the point of whether he, as an African-American, should be supporting Barack Obama instead of Clinton. "Some people have asked me," he said, " 'Do I feel awkward supporting the senator when her opponent is of color?' "

In answering, the New York congressman took a slight jab at Obama, who speaks so often of "hope" in connection with the country's future. "I find it very easy to say, 'Who do you know who can do the job?' " Rangel said. "As opposed to, 'Who do you hope and dream could do the job?' "

OBAMA UNVEILS PLANE

Obama, who unveiled a new 737-800 campaign aircraft yesterday, spent a good part of the day flying on it as he made five stops in four cities around the state. At a late afternoon rally at Clemson University, several thousand people turned out to greet him, many of them students.

"Change in America has always started with young people," he said. "If you don't believe, nobody will believe. If you accept the world as it is, then nobody will reach for the world as it might be. We are counting on you."

Also yesterday, Democrat Dennis Kucinich abandoned his presidential bid yesterday to focus on a tough race for re-election to Congress.

The six-term House member got only 1 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire presidential primary and was shut out in the Iowa caucuses.

Kucinich, 61, is facing four challengers in the Democratic congressional primary March 4.

On the GOP side, each front-runner passed through a Decision 2008 meeting of the Latin Builders Association. In the ballroom of a towering downtown hotel, the builders watched as Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and John McCain crossed the stage with their pitches.

McCain told the builders group that there is no need for a national catastrophic insurance fund in hurricane-weary Florida, saying he could bring the industry and government together to protect homeowners.

"I can ... get governors, legislatures and all of the people together, and insurance companies, and we can sit down and make insurance possible across state lines, establish risk pools and make sure every homeowner has the ability to insure their home for the future from national disaster," McCain said.

With the latest polls in Florida portraying Giuliani as slipping behind Romney and McCain among Republican voters, all of the candidates were courting a Cuban-American community that will account for one in ten of the GOP primary votes cast on Tuesday.

Giuliani faced a question of immigration in this community where Cuban immigration remains a controversy.

"We have to close the back door of illegal immigration, so we can open the front door of legal immigration," Giuliani said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.