EATTLE - Maybe he should have robbed a bank, after all.
After joking about committing a felony to grab the attention of voters and the media, Bill Bradley came to Washington state last week to rev up his flagging campaign with a victory and gain the momentum he says he needs heading into the 16 primaries and caucuses on Tuesday.
Instead, after five days of campaigning he suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of Vice President Al Gore last night, in a primary that will now serve as a tablesetter for the crush of upcoming contests. With a third of the precincts reporting, Gore received 72 percent of the vote to Bradley's 27 percent.
Despite that setback and downward spiral in the polls from California to New York and New England, Bradley vowed yesterday to wage a final costly blitz over the next week before deciding whether he is fighting a lost cause.
While Bradley focused on Washington, Gore pressed a national campaign, barnstorming from Florida to the Carolinas, New York, Ohio, California, Washington, Colorado, and Arizona.
Top Bradley campaign supporters know the situation for their candidate is dismal and have discussed it with Bradley.
''If he doesn't come out of Washington with enthusiasm, it's 0 for 15 on March 7th,'' said a prominent member of the Bradley team.
But Bradley was resolute about continuing yesterday and was privately preparing for a debate with Gore in Los Angeles tonight. He also directed his campaign to buy a five-minute network television spot for a prime-time appeal to the nation tomorrow night on CBS.
''This race has just begun,'' Bradley said in a television interview in San Francisco. ''March 7 will be the big, decisive day, and so March 7 is takeoff time.''
The Bradley campaign managed to find a silver lining in last night's results, noting that Bradley ran even with Gore in Washington's King County, where Bradley spent most of his time. Campaign officials also dismissed all votes cast by absentee ballot, saying they didn't reflect the momentum Bradley had built.
''It's an uphill fight, we've known that for 15 months,'' Bradley press secretary Eric Hauser said. ''We need to win some states on March 7th and we think we will.''
Gore last night was plainly thrilled by his thumping win and looked ahead to March 7, which, he said, will be the day ''probably deciding the outcome of the nomination.''
''Let's reach out to all Democrats and independents and independent-thinking Republicans and invite them to come with us,'' Gore told his Washington state supporters.
Political analysts speculate that the intensity of the Republican battle will continue to deprive Bradley of the spotlight.
''The bad news is obvious ... that everyone is writing him off,'' said Rhodes Cook, a specialist on the nominating process and author of ''Race for the Presidency.''
Cook said Bradley's situation has become so dire that he faces the possibility of losing every state that is up for grabs on Tuesday.
That certainly seems to be the case in California, the prize among all states with 7.8 percent of the delegates necessary to win the Democratic nomination.
''There's not even a race going on right now,'' said Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster in California, referring to polls that show Bradley's support continuing to drop.
Bradley has suffered an extreme reversal of fortune since the fall, when he enjoyed sky-high poll numbers in New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts, and when he graced the covers of the newsmagazines.
In recent days, he has angered his top campaign backers in the largest states with contests Tuesday by devoting precious days to Washington's primary.
By barnstorming across Washington, Bradley neglected California, New York, Missouri and New England, where he needs strong showings to justify continuing his campaign. Bradley and his aides defended the strategy.
''We think it was a good five days,'' said Hauser, the Bradley spokesman. ''We think we made a very strong impression. We think we shook up the race some.''
In his five-minute commercial spot tomorrow, at 10:54 p.m. on CBS, Bradley will speak ''personally to voters about his vision for the country and the basis of his candidacy and why he would be a better president,'' Hauser said.
Hauser would not disclose the cost of the ad, which will follow the show ''Diagnosis Murder'' and compete with the closing scenes of a rerun of ''ER.''
Bradley also began running a commercial in Massachusetts today that portrays him as the only candidate who has always supported gun control and abortion rights. The ad is meant to draw a distinction with Gore, who as a member of the House and Senate cast some votes against tougher gun laws and federal funding of abortion for poor women.
The campaign has also produced an ad featuring former New York mayor Ed Koch and filmmaker Spike Lee, but has yet to schedule it for the airwaves in New York. Koch has been harshly critical of Bradley's ''Washington strategy,'' which may have hurt Bradley's campaign in New York. Bradley had once been considered a sure winner in New York because of his 10-year career with the New York Knicks and his 18 years as a senator from neighboring New Jersey.
Polls now show him trailing Gore by a wide margin in the Empire State.
Bradley attributed his dismal poll numbers to the difficulty of trying to compete in a ''national primary,'' especially while McCain has commanded so much media attention.
But interest in McCain is unlikely to dissipate during the next week, when Bradley needs attention the most.
''Voters tend to go where the action is,'' said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior associate at the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate School in California.
Jeffe said McCain is likely to continue gaining support from the independent-minded voters whom Bradley covets. So the final question for Bradley is when to pull the plug.
''Right now, this has gotten to be so deeply personal, that he might not want to let go,'' Jeffe said. ''The only person who can answer that question is Bill Bradley.''
Susan Milligan of the Globe Staff, traveling with Vice President Al Gore in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.
