Senator Graham would require, practically speaking, any better-known candidate to make that mistake in the future.

A lower turnout, all but assured by Mr. Stein's withdrawal, would favor a better-known candidate with a solid base.

The 2002 Democratic primary, also hotly contested, was narrowly won by George Cordova, a party outsider who ran against several better-known candidates supported by the Democratic National Committee.

Presidential aides were said to have deemed Mr. Mueller qualified but wanted a search for better-known candidates.

The better-known candidate will nearly always win.

The very thought of tramping endlessly around Iowa also discourages better-known candidates.

"I'm just saying that a better-known candidate has a better chance of winning," said the Texas Democrat, who is a longtime friend of Mr. Bentsen.

The presence of candidates with similar names, they reason, siphons votes from the better-known candidate while increasing the prospects for a third candidate.

Mr. Schroeder's immediate fight, then, will probably be to avoid being forgotten by party leaders as they hand the nomination to a better-known, better-financed candidate.

He was chosen parliamentary leader over two better-known candidates.