WASHINGTON -- A proposed buyout of tobacco farmers and quota holders is languishing in Congress. But the issue is starting to percolate in the presidential race.

Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, backed a buyout during a campaign appearance in Kentucky, which, like North Carolina, is a major tobacco-growing state.

At an event to highlight his health-care agenda, the Massachusetts Democrat told reporters Tuesday that he supports paying tobacco growers to give up their quotas, which dictate how much tobacco they may produce.

"I think they've been strung along, and we have to get it done," Kerry said, according to newspaper reports.

His remarks were applauded by tobacco-state Democrats, including North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge, who has been pushing a buyout for years.

"We face a crisis in tobacco country, and our farmers desperately need help from our national leadership," Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, said Wednesday.

President Bush, on the other hand, raised the ire of tobacco-state lawmakers last week when, campaigning in the swing state of Ohio, he appeared to oppose farmers' efforts to secure a buyout.

"They've got the quota system in place, the allotment system," Bush told reporters. "And I don't think that needs to be changed."

His comments prompted Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a North Carolina Republican, to summon two top White House officials to her Senate office Friday afternoon.

A bill Dole is pushing would provide more than $13 billion in payments to farmers and quota holders and end a federal price-support program that dates to the 1930s and that makes American tobacco the most expensive in the world. The bill would also authorize the federal Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco -- which most cigarette makers vehemently oppose.

"She reiterated how important this is, how we really need to get it done," said Brian Nick, a spokesman for Dole, who campaigned on the issue in 2002.

Several phone calls to a White House spokeswoman seeking elaboration on Bush's position were not returned Wednesday.

Dole's buyout bill remains stalled in the Senate, while several competing bills are stuck in the House. Among the contentious issues is FDA regulation over tobacco products.

Kerry spokeswoman Anthony Coley said Kerry is among those who think that FDA regulation must be paired with a buyout for the legislation to succeed.

"He believes a quota buyout of tobacco farmers and quota owners is important for rural farmers throughout the South," said Coley, who noted that Kerry also supported buyout legislation in 1998.

It's unclear what effect the candidates' positions will have on the election. Bush handily won North Carolina and Kentucky, the nation's two largest tobacco states, over Democrat Al Gore in 2000.

A poll released in April by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee showed Bush leading Kerry in North Carolina, 51 percent to 44 percent. Earlier, independent polls showed larger margins.

But some Democrats argue that if North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is added to Kerry's ticket, North Carolina could very well become competitive in the fall. "It would certainly make it a lot closer," said Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat.

Edwards, who also supports a buyout, was among those to join in the criticism of Bush on Wednesday. "Senator Kerry clearly understands the needs of farmers, and yet again President Bush is out of touch with the people who need help the most," spokeswoman Kim Rubey said.

Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at N.C. State University, however, predicted that Kerry's support of a tobacco buyout will have no more than a "minimal" impact on the fall election, even if Edwards is on the ticket.

"The industry isn't what it used to be, and there are other issues on the radar screen in the state," Taylor said.

Ferrell Guillory, director of the Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill, said the tobacco issue "may matter at the margins," particularly with Democrats in Eastern North Carolina.

"If the race gets exceptionally close in North Carolina and Edwards is on the ticket, it could matter some," Guillory said.

Bush carried the state 56 percent to 43 percent in 2000. The last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina was Jimmy Carter in 1976.