Candidates Make Their Final N.H. Pitches All Made for TV

The presidential contenders traded their cudgels for spatulas, snowtubes and pep rallies Monday, as they almost all sought to end a bruising New Hampshire campaign on a positive note.

After a weekend that saw pointed exchanges between the Republican candidates on taxes, and an even more acrimonious cross-fire between the Democrats on ethics and negative campaigning, the candidates Monday exhorted their followers at rallies heavier on inspiration than confrontation.

Pressing through early morning snow into bright afternoon sunshine in some places, the candidates caravaned across all corners of the state in the final hours of a contest that actually began here only months after the last presidential election in 1996.

The daily flurry of polls almost all showed Arizona Sen. John McCain leading Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Republican race, while all surveys showed Vice President Al Gore ahead of former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley in the Democratic chase.

Surveys Put Gore, McCain in the Lead

Four of the new surveys--by Reuters, MSNBC and Quinnipiac College--gave Gore widening, double-digit leads over Bradley, who has fiercely attacked the vice president’s honesty and ethics since last week’s debate. Other polls showed the race tighter, though with Gore still ahead.

On the Republican side, surveys showed McCain leading Bush by margins ranging from about 3 to 12 percentage points--though one tracking poll, by Manchester’s American Research Group, continued to show Bush narrowly ahead. In all surveys, the three most conservative Republican contenders--Steve Forbes, Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer--lag far behind.

Even with the surveys almost all pointing toward the same leaders, New Hampshire’s tradition of late surges left all of the campaigns anxious about the result. John Zogby, who polls for Reuters, said his surveys showed about one-third of the voters in each party either undecided or indicating they could still switch their vote.

“This is wildly volatile,” Zogby said.

Weather forecasts for today predicted no barrier to a healthy turnout: a mix of sun and clouds. It remains to be seen whether voters will show up in greater numbers than last week in Iowa, where only about 61,000 voters attended the Democratic caucuses and 86,000 the Republican caucuses.

Lighter Fare for Last Day

The candidates did their best to inspire the voters on a final day filled mostly with low-stress, low-content events.

At a presidential pancake flip-off sponsored by Bisquick at the National Armoury here, Bush rattled off a quick campaign spiel--promising to protect Social Security and cut taxes--and then focused on his flapjack, flipping it several feet into the air for a long second before catching it handily.

Emboldened by his early success, Bush upped the ante on his second try--flipping his pancake what looked about eight feet in the air. It landed wide of his skillet.

Bauer followed with quick digs at the wealthy Forbes (“Forbes had to be on the other side of town doing a Faberge egg-scrambling contest”) and Bush (“It’s OK to flip a pancake but you shouldn’t flip-flop on issues.”)

But it was Bauer who flip-flopped seconds later, tumbling backward off the stage in a vain effort to catch his pancake. He crawled back up gamely, waving his spatula in the air and insisting: “I’m a fighter, folks.”

Bush, who rode on a snowmobile last week, continued his tour of New Hampshire’s winter amusements by careening down a hill on a “snowtube,” an inner-tube, with 13-year-old twins in Bedford, N.H. Earlier in the day, Bush threw a snowball and caught another one thrown to him over reporters’ heads at a brief news conference.

Exuding confidence, McCain barnstormed the state accompanied by his wife, their four children, and his three children from his previous marriage--a rare campaign appearance for his full brood.

“I am confident of victory tomorrow night,” he told a crowd of 75 supporters shivering outside a white wood bandstand in Keene, N.H.

McCain also stopped at Dartmouth College’s Alpha Delta house--the inspiration for the movie “Animal House.”

“Tomorrow night when we win this race,” McCain cried, as snow pelted the fraternity brothers assembled before him, “a message is going to go out all over America and it’s going to be that . . . we’re going to take those big money and fat cats and establishment people and knock them on their ear.”

Forbes undertook the electronic equivalent of a whistle-stop tour, hitting eight radio and television interviews before 10 a.m. Later, he visited his Manchester phone bank to personally call voters, and insisted to reporters he would remain in the race, however he finishes tonight. “We’re going to go on all fronts,” he said.

The three top Republican contenders have poured a combined $1 million into a last-minute advertising blitz aimed at New Hampshire viewers. Forbes spent $450,000 on TV and radio commercials in just seven days, according to opposition campaign buyers and independent tracking.

Bush bought up $330,000 worth of air time on the New Hampshire, Boston, and Portland, Maine, stations, all beamed at Granite State voters. That brings his total on ads here to $3 million.

McCain spent an extra $150,000 to $200,000 in the same markets. “They’re throwing everything they have at us,” said McCain’s media consultant, Greg Stevens.

Gore began his day scurrying after workers entering a Lockheed-Sanders plant in Nashua, N.H., that makes guidance systems for jet fighters. A few workers lingered to talk; most hurried out of the cold.

Later, Gore appeared on talk radio and went table-hopping at two restaurants. At the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, N.H., Gore was pressed by an elderly woman to make a statement--”so all the world can hear” that he was a supporter of legalized abortion. “All right; very good, I am,” Gore responded.

Upholding the winter carnival theme, Bradley began his day at a hardware store in Concord, N.H., where the candidate--who faced uncomfortable questions about his health over the weekend--bought a red snow shovel and proceeded to clear the sidewalk in front of the store.

Bradley drew large crowds to rallies and town hall meetings in a marathon 16-hour day of campaigning. Officials had to reopen Hollis High School, which had been closed because of the snow, because more than 300 supporters demanded to see Bradley.

In such enthusiastic last hour crowds, all the contenders could see a reason for optimism. After today’s vote, some of the contenders may have difficulty genuinely mustering that emotion again.

*

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Matea Gold, Massie Ritsch, Ronald Brownstein and Janet Wilson contributed to this story.