ASHINGTON - Bill Bradley is closing the gap on Al Gore in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination although both are still well behind GOP front-runner George W. Bush, says a CNN/
Gallup/USA Today poll released yesterday.
Vice President Gore had the support of 51 percent while Bradley, a former New Jersey senator, had 39 percent among people most likely to vote in a Democratic primary.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll taken a few weeks ago showed Gore with 63 percent and Bradley with 30 percent. Much of Bradley's recent progress in the polls has been in such key states as New Hampshire and New York, where he and Gore are very close.
In the national poll released yesterday, Gore and Bradley were in a statistical dead heat among male voters, but Gore led among women.
The Gore campaign expressed confidence that the vice president's campaign efforts will connect with voters around the country.
''Everywhere Al Gore travels, grass-roots voters are tuning to his campaign and his message, and time will show the strength of his effort across the country,'' said Gore campaign spokeswoman Kiki Moore.
But Bradley aides pointed to the latest poll numbers as a sign that Gore's aggressive new tactics, including direct attacks on Bradley, are not working.
Bradley spokesman Eric Hauser said: ''The public has been pretty clear that they want politics to be upright and positive.''
More than half the Bradley supporters said in the poll it was at least fairly important that Bradley has fewer ties to President Clinton than Gore. But most of those planning to vote Democratic found Bradley and Gore acceptable as nominees.
President Clinton had a job approval rating of 56 percent, but almost two-thirds said they don't approve of him as a person.
Either candidate faces a formidable task running against Bush, the governor of Texas and GOP front-runner by a huge margin in the latest poll. Bush was at 60 percent among the Republican candidates among people likely to vote in a GOP primary. Former Cabinet secretary Elizabeth Dole was at 11 percent and Arizona Senator John McCain was at 8 percent. The remaining five Republican candidates were in the low single-digits.
Bush has a 16-point lead over Gore and a 12-point lead over Bradley in head-to-head matchups.
While Gore and Bradley both had favorable ratings in the low 50s, Bush has a favorable rating of 70 percent in the poll.
The telephone poll of 976 adults nationwide was taken Oct. 8-10 and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The error margin on the primary matchups was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
