By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When campaigning for president in a country as large as the United States, it helps to have famous friends to share the campaigning.

With exhausted candidates hopscotching between 24 states as far apart as New York, California and Alaska voting in primaries and caucuses on Tuesday, the help is all the more valuable.

For months, stars of local and national politics and celebrities have campaigned for the Democrat and Republican candidates, but ahead of the busiest day of the primary season called Super Tuesday, the pace has intensified.

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, brother of slain President John Kennedy, held rallies and fundraisers for Democrat Barack Obama, trying to pass the lustre of his family's name to the Illinois senator.

"The Kennedy dynasty is ending, so I think this is their way of saying this is our last hope for change," Rita Celidonio, 58, said at a Kennedy rally in Oakland on Friday. "They're passing the mantle."

Several attendees said an endorsement by John Kennedy's only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy, helped solidify their vote for Obama. "That was a key editorial and became my point of no return," said Drew Hess, 34, a real estate investor, said of Kennedy's opinion column in the New York Times last week.

Obama is hoping Kennedy and others could contribute to a major upset in California, the nation's most populous state and biggest electoral prize, where he is running neck-and-neck with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in polls. Obama is spending the days before Tuesday's vote in other states.

FRIENDS AND FAMILY