McCain Swamps Bush as Gore Edges Bradley

John McCain scored a stunning landslide victory Tuesday over George W. Bush in the New Hampshire presidential primary, dealing Bush the first serious setback in his front-running bid for the Republican nomination. On the Democratic side, Al Gore won a narrower victory over Bill Bradley, ensuring their race continues to California.

The results came close to repudiating those just eight days ago in Iowa, where Bush and Gore walked away the winners--Gore by a mile--with a chance to put their races away. Instead, the outcome fortified McCain and kept Bradley’s hopes alive.

McCain’s blowout, in particular, represented a huge embarrassment for Bush, who has raised more money than any presidential candidate in history and enjoyed overwhelming support from the bulk of his party’s establishment.

“Clearly, the inevitability of a Bush nomination and a general election victory have been cast in doubt and that’s a major problem for the governor since that was his ace in the hole,” said Stuart Rothenberg, an independent Washington political analyst. “The size of the McCain victory has to be jarring to the Republican political establishment, not only here in New Hampshire but nationally.”

As for the Democratic contest, “Bradley ducked a bullet,” Rothenberg said. “For a while it looked like Gore would finish things off with a quick, clear, decisive victory. The fact it was so close gives Bradley reason to fight another day.”

With 97% of precincts reporting, Vice President Gore had 52% to 47% for former Sen. Bradley of New Jersey. In the Republican race, Sen. McCain of Arizona had 49% to Texas Gov. Bush’s 31%. Publisher Steve Forbes finished a distant third with 13% followed by Alan Keyes, the former U.N. diplomat, with 6%. Finishing with just 1%, social activist Gary Bauer appears likely to drop out.

Bradley and Gore will have a chance to regroup in the weeks ahead, awaiting the vote in California and 14 other states on March 7. For Republicans, the focus immediately shifts to South Carolina, where Bush enjoys a large--but shrinking--lead ahead of the Feb. 19 primary.

Hoping to capitalize on his huge win here, McCain planned a nationwide fund-raising blitz starting today in an effort to bulk up his treasury and extend his campaign into states where he remains little known. An elated McCain attributed his victory to his reform message, delivered at 114 town meetings across the state.

Band Plays ‘Anchors Aweigh’

Bounding onto the stage at his hotel headquarters in Nashua--as a live band played “Anchors Aweigh”--the beaming Navy veteran declared: “We have sent a powerful message to Washington that change is coming. Today, the Republican Party has recovered its heritage of reform.” With his wife, Cindy, and his seven children joining him on stage, McCain vowed to continue his “straight talk.”

“My friends, in the weeks and months ahead, I may say things you want to hear, and I may say things you don’t want to hear,” he said to thunderous applause from more than 1,000 supporters. “But you will always hear the truth from me, no matter what.”

Up the road in Goffstown, a subdued Bush acknowledged the setback he suffered. “New Hampshire has long been known as a bump in the road for front-runners and this year is no exception,” said Bush, who spoke from experience. His father was humbled here in 1980 after winning the Iowa caucuses and again in 1992 when insurgent Patrick J. Buchanan ran up nearly 40% of the vote against the incumbent president.

But looking past New Hampshire, Bush proclaimed to about 600 supporters: “Mine is a campaign in every state in America, because mine is a message for every American.” Inviting citizens to join his quest, he said, “My message is to end an era of scandal and bitterness in Washington.”

In Manchester, an exuberant Gore proclaimed, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

“We’ve just begun to fight. We’re going to march all the way down the field from state to state . . . all the way to victory in November,” he told a ballroom full of backers at the downtown Holiday Inn. “For months we were the underdogs here. We were outspent, but because of you, we were never outworked.

“Next November,” he pledged, “with your help, I will take New Hampshire with me to the presidency of the United States!”

Not far away, Bradley addressed an audience of about 500 supporters gathered in the gym of New Hampshire College. Bradley congratulated Gore and promised to continue to fight. He then delivered an address that more subtly stated his recent attacks on the vice president.

‘Politics Rooted in Conviction and Belief’

He cast the race as a choice between “those who look upon the Democratic Party as the caretaker of the established interests or those who wish . . . to continue its historic role of defending the oldest of our ideals against complacency, selfishness, indifference. A choice between those who engage in the old politics of rancor and division . . . and those who offer a new politics, a new politics rooted in conviction and belief.”

From cozy New Hampshire the campaign now explodes into a scattershot series of contests--something akin to a national primary--that will likely settle the nominating contests sometime in the next six weeks. Eye-level contact with discerning voters and town halls will give way to a barrage of 30-second TV ads and hopscotch appearances from California to New York to the Deep South.

The day started with good news for McCain and never let up. In the 90 minutes following Bush’s concession speech, McCain received $14,000 in pledges on his Web site, according to a campaign spokesman.

Early on, McCain learned that Hart’s Location and Dixville Notch, the two small towns that traditionally cast New Hampshire’s first ballots, had chosen him, 19-17, over Bush. “The landslide has started,” he joked to reporters. “Timber!”

McCain gambled by ignoring last week’s Iowa caucuses--which Bush won solidly--pouring virtually all of his time and resources into this first primary state. Although Bush didn’t invest nearly the same time and effort, he did campaign aggressively and spent millions in hopes of halting the Arizona senator and effectively clinching the nomination without breaking a real sweat.

Bush started out the favorite in New Hampshire, like just about everywhere else. But he frittered away his advantage in high-handed fashion, visiting so infrequently he left many Republicans thinking he took them for granted.

McCain, by contrast, treated voters here in the fashion to which they’ve long grown accustomed, showing his face longer and visiting more places than any other rival. Starting last summer, he began holding town meetings, his snowy hair and red, white and blue “Straight Talk Express” bus becoming a fixture at even the smallest rural outpost.

Bush dropped his above-it-all stance after McCain pulled ahead in polls late in the fall. He agreed to debate his GOP opponents and swore off his no-negatives pledge, launching a running fight with McCain over taxes, campaign-finance reform and who was better prepared to serve as president. By then, however, it was too late.

“McCain’s personal time and effort paid off big time,” said David Carney, a veteran New Hampshire Republican strategist who stayed neutral in the primary. “Bush caught on, but McCain just never let up.”

On the Democratic side, Gore got a similar wake-up. The Democratic front-runner was waging his own smug campaign, sweeping into the state for occasional visits, limiting his contact with voters and staying cloistered in the cocoon of the vice presidency. But when polls showed Bradley surging, Gore chucked his distant demeanor.

Shorn of his blue-suited formality, the vice president plunged into a marathon of up-close campaigning, holding one town meeting after another, often staying after the chairs were folded and the janitor swept up. In the process, observers say, the Democratic front-runner became a vastly improved candidate.

“Gore became much more attentive to audiences, more confident and sophisticated in his answers,” said Richard Winters, head of the government department at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. “He developed a set of positions and talking points on a whole range of issues that Bradley just seemed to gloss over.”

But Bradley also managed a transformation, his coming in just the last few days. Gone was the resolutely high-road campaigner, replaced by a more combative challenger, who repeatedly questioned Gore’s truthfulness and commitment to such Democratic touchstones as abortion rights, gun control and universal health care.

Gore, the aggressor most of the primary season, accused Bradley of hypocritically abandoning the high road and stooping to the negative tactics he condemned. But it helped Bradley shed his diffident image and rallied dispirited supporters--even as it worried Democratic bigwigs who fret about handing Republicans’ too much ammunition for the fall.

Even as the votes were being cast, Bradley and Gore engaged in a new round of tactical brinksmanship Tuesday evening. Bradley challenged Gore to weekly debates, leading up to March 7. The vice president has been pressing Bradley to meet him one-on-one, but his campaign responded with caution.

“I’m sure we’ll enter discussions,” said Carter Eskew, a senior Gore advisor, suggesting the vice president would continue to insist on a TV advertising cease-fire as a condition for debates.

The next stop on the campaign calendar is Delaware, where Democrats vote Saturday in a nonbinding referendum. But Gore and Bradley have both ignored the state, pledging their fealty to New Hampshire, which demanded that candidates skip any place that crowded too close.

On the Republican side, Delaware voters will cast their ballots Tuesday to select delegates to the GOP’s nominating convention. Forbes, who won the state four years ago, is planning a bus trip across the state next week while McCain and Bush focus on South Carolina.

“Make no mistake: This fight has just begun,” Forbes told about 150 supporters Tuesday night in Nashua. “This party must learn again to truly marry power with high purpose. Tonight we go on to Delaware, South Carolina and states beyond. We’re taking this all the way.”

Bauer, meantime, may be the next to exit the Republican race. Even before the polls closed, he announced plans to return to his suburban Washington headquarters today to reassess his campaign. “I’m a fighter but I’m not delusional,” he said.

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, Matea Gold, Maria L. La Ganga, T. Christian Miller, Anne-Marie O’Connor and researcher Massie Ritsch contributed to this story.

Video of candidates’ election night speeches, photos and updates on the results of the New Hampshire Primary are available on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/elect2000