[img_assist|nid=527|title=U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton with former President Bill Clinton in Indiana on Tuesday.|desc=Getty Images Photo|link=none|align=none|width=420|height=280]During an hour-long conference call with reporters this morning, key strategists for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said the race against U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) would go forward following the results of Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries. The Clinton campaign heavyweights said they were focused on the May 13 primary in West Virginia and beyond, but never mentioned Kentucky by name during the hour-long call.

When asked if strategists discussed the option of Clinton ceasing her campaign, Communications Director Howard Wolfson emphatically said, "No. No discussions."

Chief Strategist Geoff Garin and Deputy Communications Director Phil Singer joined Wolfson for an hour-long call in which the three expressed the campaign's message that it will continue to focus on "West Virginia and the other remaining contests."

"The next important contest is the next one in West Virginia. It is a critically important key swing state in November," said one of the strategists during the call. "We are going to set out to demonstrate real strength in West Virginia and show we can do well in the kind of state Democrats have not traditionally done well in."

The campaign never specifically mentioned Kentucky, and instead lumped the state under the label of "other remaining contests" following West Virginia, which also include Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota.

Nonetheless, if the Clinton campaign holds true to this course, Kentucky could still see a contested primary election for the first time in decades. The Commonwealth's primary sits seven days after the May 13 election in West Virginia.

Senator Clinton has already scheduled a May 9 visit to Louisville for a Kentucky Democratic Party fundraiser.

The Clinton campaign strategists said their message would be to present Clinton as the most electable candidate in November. In the past, the Clinton campaign has pointed to wins in "swing states" as evidence their candidate would be a better general election candidate than Obama. Using that same logic, a large primary win in Kentucky - which went for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 - could provide further ammunition for that argument.

In a new poll released yesterday, Clinton is shown to be ahead of Obama by more than 30 points in Kentucky.

Still, the Obama campaign is also showing signs of continuing campaign efforts in Kentucky, in spite of the poll numbers. Yesterday in Frankfort, the campaign opened its 14th state office. Today, the campaign has a planned a 12:30 conference call with supporter and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Louisville) to announce a "Statewide leadership committee" and a "significant western Kentucky endorsement."