President Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry will both be campaigning in the Pittsburgh region next Saturday, seeking Pennsylvania votes and control of the news cycles following the Democratic convention.

Bush will be off the campaign trail for the four days of the Democratic convention but will reemerge Friday for a series of appearances in Ohio. He will travel on Saturday to the neighboring battleground state of Pennsylvania for an appearance in Pittsburgh.

The same day, just a few miles up Route 30, Kerry and his running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, will appear at an afternoon rally in Greensburg, the third Pennsylvania stop in a post-convention bus tour. The Democratic standard-bearers will be coming from Scranton, where they'll appear Friday, the day after Kerry accepts his nomination, and from a rally later that same day on the state Capitol steps in Harrisburg, with Gov. Ed Rendell and other members of the state Democratic hierarchy.

The itinerary for the Democratic bus tour is reminiscent of the post-convention bus tour followed by former President Bill Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, after the 1992 Democratic convention.

Pennsylvania will also be the last pre-convention stop for Kerry, who plans to appear at a Philadelphia rally Tuesday night, the day before the rollcall of the states at the Boston convention confirms him as the Democratic nominee.

A Los Angeles Times survey of Pennsylvania voters published yesterday showed Kerry with a 10-point lead over the president on the eve of his party's convention, with 48 percent favoring Kerry, 38 percent supporting Bush and 5 percent for independent Ralph Nader.

Other polls have depicted a closer battle in the Commonwealth. A Quinnipiac University polling institute survey published last week showed Kerry with just a five-point lead in the state in the three-way matchup, including Nader.