NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Two lawmakers along the shoreline have announced their support for presidential candidate Barak Obama, the new Democratic front-runner.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano endorsed the Illinois junior U.S. senator, saying Obama "is bringing a whole new generation of voters into the national debate regarding America's future."

Last week, Stamford Rep. William Tong, D-District 147, announced his support for Obama. Tong was a former student of Obama's at the University of Chicago Law School.

Tong, who became Connecticut's first Asian-American lawmaker at the state level, said he ran based on his inspirations he felt while learning from Obama.

"He challenged me as student, he inspired me to run for office, and I am so excited that Senator Obama will lead our country as the next President of the United States," Tong said in a statement.

Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton said that whoever wins "we're going on," while Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney sniped at each other with ever more bite.

Romney declared, "We need some voters," one sentiment that could be embraced by all the contenders.

Clinton and Romney suffered defeats in last week's Iowa caucuses and are struggling to avoid a second major loss. McCain is surging on the Republican side, and polls show Obama leading for the Democratic primary here.

Democrat John Edwards, meanwhile, mounted an all-night bus tour of the state, with early morning stops planned for Berlin, Littleton and Claremont, with 10 more events throughout the day and evening. "While everyone else goes to bed tonight," he told a Nashua audience, "I'm going to be out working."

Romney scheduled six events, an end-of-the-day rally and a two-minute television ad, while McCain pushed into what he called "The Mac Is Back" bus tour, flanked by dozens of friends and relatives who turned out for the final New Hampshire push. Optimism mixed with nostalgia as the Arizona senator sought a repeat of his surprise win here during his first White House run eight years ago.

"Tomorrow is the day when we will tell the world that New Hampshire again has chosen the next president of the United States," McCain told a couple of hundred sign-toting supporters.

Iowa's GOP winner, Mike Huckabee, said he wasn't counting on winning a top spot in New Hampshire's primary Tuesday. "If we come in anywhere in the third and fourth slot, we're going to do great. I'd like to do better than that, but you have people who have had a lot more money spent here," he told CNN.

The once front-running Romney was also circumspect about his chances.

"If I come in in a second-place finish, that will actually say that I am clearly one of the leading contenders. I will have come in second in Iowa, first in Wyoming, second in New Hampshire. That will mean that I probably have more votes than anybody else in those first three states," he said.

Romney's first stop was the entrance of BAE Systems North America, where he found reporters and camera crews far outnumbered arriving workers. That prompted the former Massachusetts governor to exclaim, "We need some voters."

After a speech to employees at the Timberland shoe company in Stratham, Romney argued that McCain would not be the best candidate to compete against a Democrat such as Obama.

"I think Barack Obama would be able to do to John McCain exactly what he was able to do to the other senators who were running on the other side" in Iowa, he said.

Told about Romney's comments, McCain said, "I appreciate all those predictions about my political future, and I know they come from a vast storage of knowledge and background. ... I'll let the voters make a decision."

Romney planned to air a two-minute television ad Monday evening, portraying Washington as in need of a president with the business and government background and experience that he has.

"It's long past time to bring real change to Washington," he says in the ad. "That's never going to happen if all we do is send the same people back to Washington to sit in different chairs."

The line echoes Obama's appeal to voters: "The real gamble in this election is to do the same things, with the same folks, playing the same games over and over and over again and somehow expect a different result."

A new survey showed Obama opening a lead over Clinton, while the Republican race remained a statistical dead heat.

"His campaign is a call to hope and a call to service that I, like so many other young people in this country, are compelled to answer," Tong said.