Tsongas Leads Polls, Draws New Attention

Only weeks ago he was a candidate in search of an audience, but these days former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas can barely squeeze through the crowds that turn out for him.

“Why are you all here?” the Democratic presidential contender asked, only half in jest, at Daniel Webster College in Nashua on Sunday.

The answer was obvious. With recent polls showing him neck-and-neck or ahead of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the long-shot lawyer from Lowell, Mass., was leading the campaign that had seized everyone’s attention.

A CNN-USA Today poll Tuesday showed Tsongas with the lead--33% to Clinton’s 26%. A Boston Globe tracking poll showed a tighter race, with Tsongas at 26% and Clinton at 24%. Several earlier polls showed Tsongas in second place.

“We’ve done better than anybody expected, but we don’t take this all that seriously,” Tsongas insisted Tuesday. “I’ve seen bad polls--I don’t jump off a cliff. I’ve seen good ones--I don’t pop champagne.”

Nonetheless, it was clear that the world changed last weekend for Tsongas--for both good and bad. More campaign volunteers and more donations were accompanied by intense attention and fresh criticism from other candidates.

Tsongas was hearing more reporters’ questions about his health and his corporate lobbying. And despite his surge in the polls, he still had to answer the contention of many analysts that even with a victory in the New Hampshire primary, he faces major obstacles finding money, organizational strength and votes in the next round of primaries.

It was, he told a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Manchester YWCA, part of the awkwardness of his new position. “Half of your questions are, ‘Are you the front-runner?’ ” he said. “The other half are, ‘Can you go beyond New Hampshire?’ ”

At the press conference Tsongas, who survived a bout with cancer eight years ago, was asked about his health. “I know there are people who are spreading rumors about that,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do about that.” He did not say who might be behind such rumors.

Tsongas has a persistent cough that he blames on overuse of his voice on the campaign. Although he denies that cancer impaired his stamina, Tsongas does acknowledge that he needs a full eight hours of sleep.

Tsongas was also asked about the lobbying activities he has undertaken since 1985, when he left the Senate and began working with the Boston law firm of Foley, Hoag & Eliot. Among his clients was the Iroquois Gas Transmission System, which carries natural gas along a pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to New England. It has been attacked on environmental grounds. Tsongas said that natural gas is the most environmentally desirable form of energy.

“I have turned down clients I didn’t agree with,” Tsongas said in an interview.

Criticism also has been growing from leading Democratic adversaries. Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, in an appearance at Dartmouth University, called Tsongas a “radioactive environmentalist.” He referred to Tsongas’ view that the nation needs to rely on nuclear energy, along with other sources.

But because Tsongas underwent radiation therapy during his cancer treatments, some took Harkin’s comment as an attempt to bring up the health issue. “I think it’s in pretty bad taste,” said Peggy Connolly, Tsongas’ press secretary.

Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster with Sawyer Miller KRC in Los Angeles, says Tsongas’ rise in the polls probably will bring a “new cycle of scrutiny of his Senate record, his lobbying and his health” during the last week of the New Hampshire campaign. That scrutiny is among several factors that could shift the voting pattern before Tuesday, he said.

The signs of Tsongas’ new status have been numerous.

On Monday, at a recycling center in Wilton, N.H., a huge crowd of photographers and reporters crowded around him. One aide called the affair a “mini riot.”

Endorsements have come from unlikely places, in part because of his pro-business stance. Over the weekend the campaign received a check for $1,000 from actor Tom Selleck, who has been a strong Republican supporter.

Money, too, has flowed in, averaging about $16,000 a day in the mail alone. The number of volunteers also has been rising steadily.

Tsongas’ contention has been that a strong showing in New Hampshire would give him momentum that would bring money and a volunteer organization to carry him through other states. The day after the primary he will get a test of his money-making capacity when he goes to New York to try to raise $200,000 from potential contributors who are Greek-Americans.

How much would a New Hampshire victory be worth to Tsongas? Some analysts who acknowledge his progress still expect it would be interpreted more as a crushing defeat for Clinton than as a grand triumph for Tsongas.

“He’s a familiar face,” says pollster Maslin. “In an election year that has had a lot of uncertainty, there’s a natural tendency of voters to gravitate to people they feel comfortable with.”

In other campaign developments:

* Clinton made a campaign appearance in Boston at which his aides distributed a four-page press release laying out connections between Republicans and some of the tabloids that have prominently featured allegations about his personal life.

Earlier, Clinton acknowledged that New Hampshire voters “want to take another look at me” after having “a lot of stuff dumped on them” about his personal life over the last few weeks.

“I’m going to give them another look,” he declared.

As the centerpiece of that effort, the campaign bought half-hour slots on local television both Thursday and Friday nights. On Thursday, Clinton will answer questions from an audience of undecided voters. On Friday, he will take phone-in questions.

* The group mounting a write-in campaign for New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in New Hampshire announced that it will begin airing television ads Thursday on Manchester’s WMUR-TV telling voters that Cuomo’s candidacy is credible.

* Harkin arrived at the Concord, N.H., airport holding up a Des Moines Register headline saying he had scored a “huge victory” in the state’s caucuses. He said the Monday night event had given his campaign a new beginning.