11.   Campaigning for president in the weeks before the first primary contest here is serious business.

12.   Candidates are competing even harder in New Hampshire, which is the first major contest where no contender has a particular geographic advantage.

13.   Coca-Cola and Sears said that they were impressed with the quality of ideas from the first contests.

14.   Deborah Hilliard Ben-Nun of Austin was at her first cooking contest as well.

15.   I figured if this game happened to go into overtime, it might become the first NBA contest in history to lose two announcers to laryngitis.

16.   In the first contest after his bruising defeat in New Hampshire a week ago, Gov. George W. Bush handily won the Republican primary in Delaware Tuesday.

17.   In the first contest after his bruising defeat in New Hampshire a week ago, Gov. George W. Bush handily won the Republican primary in Delaware on Tuesday.

18.   It may simply be that Iowa, long treated by candidates as the first meaningful contest of the season, may not be so pivotal any longer.

19.   Mr. Madley said he is thrilled to win his first contest and vowed to make an even more spectacular display for next holiday season.

20.   No one knows quite how the results here will play out, especially since this is the first time Louisiana has held the first contest of the primary season.