STATE-BY-STATE LOOK The 50 states, their electoral votes and analyses based on poll results and interviews with Democratic, Republican and independent observers. ALABAMA (9) - Solid Bush. ALASKA (3) - Solid Bush. ARIZONA (8) - Leans Bush. Sen. John McCain's home state will be tough for Gore to crack. ARKANSAS (6) - Tossup. President Clinton's home state is turning Republican. CALIFORNIA (54) - Leans Gore. The Texas Republican is campaigning in the state this week but spending little money there. COLORADO (8) - Tossup. New poll has race even, though some Democrats wonder if they can keep the state in play. Gore visiting next week. CONNECTICUT (8) - Leans Gore. Adding native son Joseph Lieberman to ticket gives Democrat the edge. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (3) - Solid Gore. DELAWARE (3) - Tossup. State has voted for winner in every presidential election since 1948. FLORIDA (25) - Tossup. Bush can't win presidency without this state, and Gore has evened up polls. Bush brother Jeb is governor. GEORGIA (13) - Leans Bush. South tough for Gore. HAWAII (4) - Solid Gore. Republicans say they've got a chance, but Democrats always do better here than polls show. IDAHO (4) - Solid Bush. ILLINOIS (22) - Leans Gore. Republican and Democratic polls give him edge, though both campaigns spending millions. INDIANA (12) - Solid Bush. IOWA (7) - Leans Gore. Internal polls on both sides show close race, but Democratic ground game in best shape. KANSAS (6) - Solid Bush. KENTUCKY (8) - Leans Bush. Democrats say they've closed ground with Gore's populist message, but tobacco and coal country rough on vice president. LOUISIANA (9) - Tossup. Clinton won state twice, but Bush is friendly neighbor from Texas. MAINE (4) - Tossup. Home of Bush family retreat, but both campaigns say race is close. MARYLAND (10) - Leans Gore. Poll gives him solid lead. MASSACHUSETTS (12) - Solid Gore. Bush didn't even want to debate in the state but agreed to on Thursday. MICHIGAN (18) - Tossup. State operatives say momentum shifting to Gore, but polls still close. MINNESOTA (10) - Leans Gore. Post-convention poll shows him pulling away. MISSISSIPPI (7) - Solid Bush. MISSOURI (11) - Tossup. Polls even or give Gore edge. Operatives in both parties say the state will soon be in Gore's column unless Bush reverses trend. MONTANA (3) - Leans Bush. No talk of Gore making a play. NEBRASKA (5) - Solid Bush. NEVADA (4) - Leans Bush. Democrats think the race is even, and Gore will test theory with visit next week. Keep an eye on this one. NEW HAMPSHIRE (4) - Tossup. Both sides say race is tied in state that handed Bush big primary defeat. NEW JERSEY (15) - Leans Gore. Traditional battleground turning Democratic, but not out of Bush's range if he buys ads. NEW MEXICO (5) - Tossup. Hispanic vote could make difference. NEW YORK (33) - Solid Gore. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate race getting all the attention. NORTH CAROLINA (14) - Leans Bush. Democrats see chances dimming. NORTH DAKOTA (3) - Solid Bush. OHIO (21) - Tossup. Republican polls had Bush way ahead on Labor Day. Now he's even and Democrats' spirits are up. OKLAHOMA (8) - Solid Bush. OREGON (7) - Tossup. Toughest of West Coast states for Gore to hold. PENNSYLVANIA (23) - Leans Gore. Public and private polls give him edge, but state could go back and forth before election. RHODE ISLAND (4) - Leans Gore. No polls, but analysts say state is squarely for vice president. SOUTH CAROLINA (8) - Solid Bush. SOUTH DAKOTA (3) - Solid Bush. TENNESSEE (11) - Leans Gore. State turning Republican, but it's still his home. TEXAS (32) - Solid Bush. Gore won't mess with Texas. UTAH (5) - Solid Bush. VERMONT (3) - Leans Gore. VIRGINIA (13) - Solid Bush. WASHINGTON (11) - Tossup. A Democratic state that Bush is still keeping close. A new poll gives Gore a 7-point edge. WEST VIRGINIA (5) - Leans Gore. Coal and steel workers upset with Gore, but state only votes Republican in GOP landslide years. WISCONSIN (11) - Tossup. Race hasn't moved since Labor Day in this Democratic state. Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson a big help to Bush. WYOMING (3) - Solid Bush.

In more than three dozen interviews this week, Democratic, Republican and independent political analysts concluded the race is still highly competitive. But they said Texas Gov. George W. Bush must move quickly to keep the vice president from opening a formidable lead.

Across the country, Republicans expressed frustration with their nominee's campaign.

"People like George W. Bush, but the issue in people's minds is, `Is he up to the job?"' said Craig Berkman, former chairman of the Oregon GOP. He said Bush must answer the question in debates against Gore. The first of three debates is set for Oct. 3.

The vice president has made modest but steady gains against Bush since Labor Day, when an AP survey found 14 states and the District of Columbia leaning Gore's way or solidly in his column. An additional 22 states tilted toward Bush, leaving a wide open race concentrated in the Midwest battlegrounds of Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as Pennsylvania.

Since then, Gore has emerged from a dead heat in national polls to gain an edge in many surveys. In the all-important state-by-state race for electoral votes, Pennsylvania has moved from the tossup category to the lean-Gore column. Colorado, a lean-Bush state two weeks ago, is now a tossup.

That gives Gore 15 states plus the District of Columbia for 224 electoral votes -- 46 short of the 270 required for victory. If the election were held today, Bush would claim 21 states for 171 electoral votes.

An additional 14 states and 143 electoral votes are tossups. Analysts say Gore has momentum that could soon tilt a number of the most competitive states to the Democrat, including Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Washington.

"The longer the campaign goes on without a shift to Bush, the harder it is to find a reason that such a shift will occur," said Dave Rohde, political science professor at Michigan State University.

The trend is striking in Missouri, a state with Bush leanings until recent weeks. Republicans and Democrats alike say the state, which traditionally votes for the winner, is on the verge of falling into Gore's column.

"He should focus on how Al Gore is way too left for Missouri, but they haven't done that effectively," said John Russell, the senior GOP senator in the Missouri legislature. "If the election were today, and I'm a Bush backer, it would be a tossup and Gore could win."

"Michigan is listing Gore's way," said Craig Ruff, president of a Lansing, Mich., political think tank.

In Washington state, independent pollster Stuart Elway compared Gore to a baseball player coming out of a summer-long dry spell -- his polling now gives an edge to the vice president. "He can't miss. Bush can still win here, but he has to come out of his slump," Elway said.

Ohio is Bush's best bet in the Midwest, yet GOP polls show the race has evened up since Labor Day.

The latest Pennsylvania poll gave Gore a 13-point lead. Though few analysts think the margin is that large, internal polling for both parties leans toward Gore.

"Gore has now made himself acceptable to more voters here," said Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Millersville University in Pennsylvania.

Adding to Bush's troubles is the tight race in Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor and no Republican can afford to lose.

Gore must win California to make his electoral math add to 270. Polls show he is safely ahead for now.

Republicans complained that Bush has been sidetracked since the Democratic convention by debate negotiations, his high-profile slur of a newspaper reporter and controversies over GOP ads. Even Bush's famously loyal confidants say privately that many more distractions could give Gore room to run away with the lead.

"He's got to get on the offensive and he's got to be posing better ideas rather than defending various remarks and other ancillary activities of the campaign," said Republican state Rep. Jim Trakas of suburban Cleveland.

"Bush has to show that he knows he's running for president, not president of his class," said Tom Roeser, a conservative activist in Illinois, where Gore is holding on to a slim lead.

Responding to the sniping, Bush has retooled his campaign message and sharpened his attacks on Gore.

Bush's running mate Dick Cheney has disappointed some Republicans, both for his low-wattage style and business controversies. Cheney lashed out at the media this week, a sure sign of a politician on the run.

Polls show a remarkable turnaround for Gore: voters have more confidence in the vice president than in Bush to run the economy; he erased Bush's lead on personal qualities like trust and likeability; and parents, a majority of whom held President Clinton's impeachment against Gore this summer, are now evenly split between the two candidates.

Issues fueled Gore's gain, according to a poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Nearly half of the voters say their choice for president is based on his stand on issues compared with 36 percent who expressed that opinion in June. Gore holds wide leads over Bush on two top issues, Social Security and improving health care.

And yet the momentum could whip back to Bush.

Nearly one-third of independents who have committed to a candidate say they still might change their minds. Bush is viewed as a stronger leader with more political courage than Gore, according to the Pew poll.

"The wheel turns," said GOP activist Roeser, "and I think that one way or another something dramatic will happen and it will turn our way again."