Indiana Senator Evan Bayh said he would make reducing carbon dioxide emissions and increasing American energy independence his top priorities if he were elected president, the Boston Globe reports.

He told a few dozen Democrats in the first presidential primary state Sunday that there is bi-partisan interest in the issues because Republicans believe alternatives to foreign oil would improve national security, and Democrats want to slow the rate of climate change.

“I’d begin with this energy issue, including global warming, because it affects so many important things and because there’s some common ground there,” he said.

Bayh was hosted by Democratic state senators from Keene and Cornish, N.H., on Sunday, after speaking at a reception in Manchester on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a potential rival in the 2008 Democratic primary, drew much larger crowds Sunday in Portsmouth and Manchester.

Bayh has promoted himself as a moderate who can work with Republicans. He said he expected that the new Democratic majorities in Congress would make federal funding for stem cell research one of its top priorities when it convenes in January.

He also acknowledged that Democrats are likely to investigate some unpopular Republican policies, including the conduct of the war in Iraq. But he said the Democrats have a mandate to get things done, and that will come first.