Clinton Running Mate Search Nears End : Politics: Sen. Gore meets with the candidate’s key adviser, who then joins the selection team in Little Rock for a final discussion of the prospects.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Bill Clinton entered the last stages of his search for a running mate Wednesday as the head of his search team, Los Angeles attorney Warren Christopher, flew to Little Rock Wednesday evening for a final discussion of prospects.

Also arriving here was Mark Gearan, a senior Clinton adviser who is expected to head the campaign effort for whomever Clinton chooses.

Before coming to Little Rock, Christopher met with Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr. at the Gore home in Carthage, Tenn., where he was gathered with members of his family and some top aides. Neither Christopher nor Gore would comment on the meeting.

Clinton touched base with others on his list of candidates as well, meeting late Tuesday night with Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. Television reporters staking out the Little Rock airport encountered Kerrey as he left town about 5 a.m. Wednesday.

In addition to Gore and Kerrey, Democratic sources have named Florida Sen. Bob Graham, Indiana Rep. Lee H. Hamilton and Pennsylvania Sen. Harris Wofford as remaining vice presidential contenders. But even top Clinton campaign aides admit they do not know who Clinton will pick--or exactly when.

Other than Christopher, only a handful of advisers, including Clinton’s wife, Hillary, and his campaign chairman Mickey Kantor, have been privy to detailed running-mate discussions, the aides said.

As he waited for the last pieces of his decision-making to fall into place--the background checks finished and the final discussions completed--Clinton whiled away the hours. He took reporters to visit an education program aimed at moving welfare recipients into the work force, met with his media advisers to discuss advertising strategy for the fall and traveled to his hometown of Hope, Ark., to visit relatives and have his picture taken for yet another magazine cover.

Clinton is expected to be featured next week on the covers of both Time--whose photographers took his picture in Hope--and Newsweek, which interviewed him at length Wednesday, a visible symbol of what his advisers view as the rejuvenation of his fortunes on the eve of next week’s Democratic convention.

The campaign’s latest poll--a NBC/Wall St. Journal survey released Wednesday--squared with two polls last week that essentially showed the presidential race is a dead heat among Clinton, President Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot. A series of previous polls had showed Clinton clearly mired in third place.

Perot had 33% in the new poll, Bush had 31% and Clinton 28%. Because the poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, any one of the three candidates could claim to be the leader.

Clinton also continued to enjoy success pulling his ever-fractious party together. One of Clinton’s primary-season foes, former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, formally endorsed him Wednesday. Tsongas’ action put an end to rumors of his backing Perot.

Clinton, in turn, told reporters he thought Tsongas would make a “major contribution” to the campaign and hoped he might be “involved” in a Clinton Administration.

And even former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.--the last holdout among Clinton’s rivals for the nomination--began making some conciliatory sounds, although in typical style he mixed his friendly remarks with some of a more critical tone.

“This is a coalition party,” Brown said, adding that “I want to be part of this large tent.” But Brown added that Clinton must embrace at least some of Brown’s proposals for overhauling the U.S. political system as the price for his endorsement.

Brown said he had discussed his conditions, which he calls his “humility agenda,” during a meeting with the Arkansas governor Monday night in Washington.

Asked whether Clinton was going to have to support some of his proposals to get his endorsement, Brown replied: “Yes, he is . . . plain and simple.”