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Gore, Bush face off

in fight for

ex-rivals' voters

WASHINGTON: Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor, George W Bush on Tuesday face a series of presidential contests that will test their ability to rally the crucial constituencies their drop-out rivals left behind.

"By quirk of scheduling, three of the six states holding Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday represent home turf for one or other candidate. Gore will be on Bush's home territory in Texas and in Florida Ñ where Bush's brother Jeb is governor.

And Gore has Tennessee, his own home state, as the site of his campaign headquarters. Aides say he plans to cast his ballot in the primary there on Tuesday, and stay to watch the returns come in.

Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma will also vote on Tuesday, to decide who gets how many of their delegates to the two party conventions in the summer.

The delegates at the conventions vote to decide on the respective Democratic and Republican candidates to replace President Bill Clinton in the November 7 presidential election.

Gore wrapped up the Democratic nomination in the coast-to-coast flurry of "Super Tuesday" elections March 7, ending the outsider candidacy of ex-senator Bill Bradley. Bradley on Thursday endorsed Gore, after failing to beat the vice president in a single contest this year.

Bush, who suffered stinging early defeats at the hands of John McCain, ran his insurgent rival off the road to the White House with a series of crushing victories on "Super Tuesday," leaving his path to the nomination clear.

McCain this week suspended, rather than ended, his campaign in order to retain delegates, and therefore leverage, at his party's late July-early August nominating convention. He withheld for the time being his explicit endorsement from Bush, whom he is expected to support.

A recent nationwide poll showed Gore and Bush Ñ who once led by double digits Ñ in a dead heat, 43-40 in a poll that had a 3.9 percentage point margin of error.

Already, both the Texas governor, darling of the Republican establishment, and Gore, Clinton's handpicked successor, are ardently courting independent voters, cross-over Democrats, and reform-minded Republicans.

All these groups are regarded as having powered the Arizona senator's electrifying race, helping broadcast his call to cleanse US politics of the influence of 'soft' money and behind the scenes lobbying.

"We are very confident" of winning those voters over, said Mindy Tucker, a spokeswoman for Bush. "Those voters want reform ... and that's what Governor Bush's record and agenda is".

"Al Gore represents the status quo, Governor Bush represents reform," she added.

Gore campaign spokesman Dough Hattaway countered that Gore could better attract McCain supporters, who he said were concerned by issues including the economy, education, paying down the debt and the senator's signature issue of campaign finance reform.

"Al Gore has been part of creating the climate for our economic success," he said. "We certainly have the right issues and the better candidate.... and we have already begun reaching out to independent voters and independent-minded Republicans," he added.

McCain's Democratic and Republican supporters are likely to return to their parties' folds, closing ranks respectively behind Gore and Bush, according to analysts.

But the unaffiliated voters whom McCain rallied behind his reformist banner will be "the key to the outcome of this fall's election," said Eric Davis, a political scientist at Middlebury College in Vermont.ÑAFP