Both Democratic presidential campaigns have the same advice for the press: Go after my opponent.

A day after the campaign-saving victories for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Ohio and Texas, strategists for both candidates signaled that the weeks before Pennsylvania's April 22 primary will feature a tough tone.

And, borrowing a page from the newly successful Clinton playbook, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's chief strategist told reporters that his campaign has been going too easy on the former first lady. His counsel was an echo of the weeks of claims from the Clinton camp that it was Mr. Obama who had benefitted from kid-gloves treatment by reporters.

"The vetting of Hillary Clinton has yet to start," said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's strategist. "The hard questions haven't been asked of Sen. Clinton."

He demanded that Mrs. Clinton release her income tax returns, something her campaign has said she planned to do sometime around the tax-filing deadline of April 15. Mr. Axelrod said there was no reason for delaying the release of past returns. "Sen. Clinton has been elusive on this from the start," he said. "There's absolutely no reason why she doesn't release her 2006 returns."

The Obama campaign first pressed Mrs. Clinton to release her tax information after she loaned her campaign $5 million before the Feb. 5 primary contests.

"There's no guarantee that they will be available before the Pennsylvania primary," Mr. Axelrod complained in a conference call with reporters. "She is a habitual non-discloser," he said, accusing the New York senator of failing to provide full information on topics including her White House records and financial contributors to her husband's presidential library.

The Clinton campaign continued to play editor as well, persisting in their contention that reporters were letting Mr. Obama give them the slip.

"I think he underwent a few days of questioning, but to be really vetted, there has to be a lot more questioning," said Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton's chief strategist.

Clinton press aide Phil Singer maintained that Mr. Obama has yet to fully disclose details of his relationship with Chicago businessman Tony Rezko, an Obama political contributor who is facing trial on influence-peddling charges unrelated to the Illinois senator. "I wouldn't even call them aggressive questions, just basic questions," Mr. Singer said of the campaign's demands that Mr. Obama give a full accounting of issues such as how many fundraisers Mr. Rezko may have hosted for him.

Neither campaign offered any concrete examples of what improprieties might be uncovered by the disclosures they seek, but both clearly were trying to put the other side on the defensive.

Harold Ickes, another Clinton aide, said this vetting process was essential to ensure that the party's nominee could withstand Republican attacks in the general election. After Mrs. Clinton's years in public life, Mr. Ickes said -- using one of her campaign's frequent talking points -- she has already successfully navigated that process. "There are no shoes left to drop in her closet," he said.

Mr. Axelrod disagreed. "This is not a decision to go negative; this is an attempt to see to it that both campaigns are held to the same yardstick," he said of the Obama camp's plans to question the New York senator.

"I don't think there's any candidate in this race who has been vetted less than Sen. Clinton," Mr. Axelrod said. He contended that Mrs. Clinton's "assertions on her accomplishments" and her statements regarding her tax disclosure "have largely been taken at face value by the press."

Mr. Obama, addressing reporters on his campaign plane, spoke of the new scrutiny his campaign planned to direct toward his rival, who has based her campaign on claims of her greater experience. "What exactly is this foreign policy experience?" Mr. Obama asked, according to the Associated Press. "Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no."

The Obama campaign yesterday was also intent on discounting the momentum their rivals claimed from the three victories that snapped their candidate's wining streak. In a memo, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the results left Mrs. Clinton with a net gain of just four delegates -- hardly denting Mr. Obama's delegate lead.

The Associated Press put Mrs. Clinton's net gain at 12 delegates. Accounting for some movement among the superdelegates, the AP's overall count gave Mr. Obama a delegate total of 1,567, compared with 1,462 for Mrs. Clinton. It will take 2,025 votes to win the nomination, assuming that Michigan and Florida remain as bystanders for the Democrats' Denver national convention in August. The two states were stripped of their delegates because they scheduled their primaries in violation of Democratic National Committee rules.

There was renewed talk yesterday of scheduling "do-over" contests for those two states, a possibility that would increase the number of delegates needed for nomination. Any factor that shakes up the nominating math is good for the Clinton campaign, which, despite her headline-winning triumphs Tuesday, still faces a big deficit in elected delegates.