One day after raising concerns about Barack Obama's past drug use, a senior Hillary Clinton supporter stepped down from her campaign. Bill Shaheen's resignation late yesterday - he was co-chairman of Clinton's New Hampshire and national campaigns - came amid mounting criticism that Clinton's campaign has taken a negative turn.

In a written statement distributed by Clinton's campaign yesterday, Shaheen said that he "made the personal decision" to leave the campaign and that his comments weren't authorized by Clinton or her staff.

"Sen. Clinton has been running a positive campaign focused on the issues that matter to America's families," the statement said. Shaheen cast his decision to resign in terms of the outcome of the race. "This election is too important and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has a record of making change happen in this country," he wrote "That candidate is Hillary Clinton."

The fracas began Wednesday, when Shaheen suggested that Obama's drug use as a young man might become fodder for Republican attacks. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?' " Shaheen told the Washington Post. Obama long ago disclosed that, as a student, he used cocaine and marijuana.

Clinton's campaign quickly moved to distance itself from the remarks, and Clinton "personally apologized" to Obama, Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said yesterday. "These type of personal comments will not be tolerated in any way by the campaign, and we will continue to focus on the issues that matter to American families," Strand said.

But Shaheen's statements exposed the campaign to criticism. After Shaheen's resignation, Obama spokesman Reid Cherlin said that "it is clear that the politics of false attacks and innuendo are being rejected by voters from New Hampshire and across the country."

The Democratic contest has grown increasingly heated in recent weeks, and Clinton and Obama are locked in a statistical dead heat in New Hampshire, according to recent polls. As the race has tightened, Obama aides say, Clinton's campaign has stepped up its attacks.

Early yesterday, before Shaheen stepped down, Obama's New Hampshire campaign held a press conference to condemn Shaheen's remarks.

Ned Helms, Obama's state co-chairman and the former state Democratic Party chairman, called the comments part of a pattern of attacks. "How long do we have to see an isolated statement followed by a denial before we say, 'Stop, it's enough'?"

He pointed to two recent instances when Clinton's campaign dismissed Iowa staffers who distributed e-mails accusing Obama of being a radical Muslim. "When there's a pattern of statements followed up by denial that it's not authorized, it doesn't take a genius to see a strategy," Helms said at a press conference in Concord, where he was joined by state Sen. Martha Fuller-Clark, a co-chairwoman of Obama's New Hampshire campaign.

Helms criticized Clinton for "circulating negative literature to confuse people about Obama's position on universal health care," referring to a flier distributed at Clinton events criticizing Obama's health care plan for not covering everyone. He also referenced a recent memo put out by the Clinton campaign, which traces Obama's presidential aspirations to his kindergarten writings. "She's moved from looking at his kindergarten years, to reading his book and citing research from his teenage years," Helms said.

Fuller-Clark added, "Voters are interested in a productive discussion on issues, not on misleading characterizations of his health care plan and not on gratuitous character attacks."

Helms did not call on Shaheen to step down. When asked what further steps the Clinton campaign should take, he said, "That conversation needs to take place within the Clinton campaign. . . . They can run their own campaign."

Shaheen's resignation brings to an end one of the more high-profile connections between a New Hampshire Democrat and a presidential candidate in this campaign. When Shaheen signed on to the campaign early this year, the announcement came during a press conference in Manchester. Shaheen, widely considered a prominent Democratic powerbroker, frequently accompanied Clinton to events in the state.

In 2000, Shaheen was chairman of Al Gore's New Hampshire primary campaign. In 2004, he was aligned with Democratic candidate John Kerry.

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