ESILLA, N.M. - It may have been one of the less-weighty initiatives of the presidential race, but aides to George W. Bush unveiled a count of his campaign stops yesterday, and triggered a daylong battle over which candidate is busier.
Campaigning in tightly contested states 11 weeks before the election, the candidates themselves addressed a range of government policies. Bush, who plans to focus on education for two weeks, visited New Mexico, where he unveiled a program to rebuild Native American schools, saying there had been a ''failure of responsibility'' to keep the schools in repair.
Bush also unveiled two 30-second education ad spots in 21 states, including Maine and New Hampshire, to rebut Democratic claims that he has been light on policy issues.
Gore, meanwhile, focused on the environment during the second day of his four-day boat trip down the Mississippi River. ''I will clean up the environment,'' the vice president told supportersin Dubuque, Iowa. ''My opponent does not reflect that commitment.''
But behind the scenes, aides to Bush were engaged in a somewhat less urgent project: disseminating their analysis of the campaign calendars, which they said showed Bush made 22 campaign stops in five days after his nomination, in contrast to eight campaign stops in four days by Al Gore.
That prompted a swift rebuttal from exhausted Gore aides, who pointed out that the vice president flew a red-eye flight on Thursday night, then campaigned for 12 hours on Friday, a day in which Bush cut short his one campaign trip to go jogging. They also disputed the accounting, saying Gore would hold 20 events and visit six states before the end of his trip. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane called the Bush campaign's statements ''ridiculous.''
The bickering bordered on comical at times, as each side argued over how the analysis was framed. Was it a campaign stop when Bush slowed his train to wave at residents of a small town? Or when Gore stopped spontaneously to shake hands? Aides scrambled to find out.
But beneath the argument lay a fundamental question about the way the two men campaign. Bush has purposely paced himself, to the point of appearing complacent at times; Gore, on the other hand, is notorious for keeping up a frantic pace, to the point of visible fatigue.
And for the Texas governor, the pace of his schedule has been a troublesome issue in the past. When Bush lost the New Hampshire primary to Senator John S. McCain, some Republicans feared it was because he lacked the will to campaign hard, or because he assumed he had already won.
Bush put those fears to rest later in the primary season, and until yesterday, they had not resurfaced. With the conclusion of the two parties' conventions, however, both candidates have come under closer scrutiny, and the Bush campaign, perhaps anticipating its schedule would eventually be compared with Gore's, tried to take command of the issue.
''Governor Bush has not ceded any ground in campaigning across the United States,'' spokesman Scott McClellan said. ''We're campaigning in every single state.''
In an interview last week, senior Bush adviser Karl Rove questioned the wisdom of Gore's frenzied schedule, saying Gore ''doesn't look well when he's tired.''
''Look at the guy when he's been out there for 20 days, 30 days and he's running around the countryside,'' Rove said of Gore. ''He doesn't look good, and people will develop an impression of him.''
Gore aides, however, have long viewed his energy as an asset, and yesterday suggested the issue would come back to haunt Bush.
Gore's boat, the Mark Twain, made six stops along the Mississippi on Friday, and held events in three towns yesterday, broadcasting a populist message to middle-class voters in the nation's heartland. After the trip concludes tomorrow in Missouri, Gore will fly to Milwaukee, Chicago and Miami before returning to Washington Wednesday night.
Gore himself seemed energized by the post-convention swing, buoyed by polls showing he is gaining on, or even besting, Bush. A Newsweek poll released yesterday has Gore ahead of Bush, 48 percent to 42 percent. The poll, based on a survey of 806 registered voters on Aug. 17 and 18, has a margin of error of four percentage points.
On his boat trip yesterday, Gore hit working-class themes as he addressed a crowd of about 2,000 supporters in Dubuque, Iowa. He pledged to increase the minimum wage and to strengthen the right of workers to organize.
After spending today in Austin, Bush plans to visit a total of 19 states in August, 16 of which President Clinton carried in 1996. New Mexico was one of the states that voted Democratic in the past, but which Bush believes he can win this year.
Beginning his push for education, Bush unveiled an $802 million proposal to repair Native American schools, as well as $126 million to replace six schools. He also said that as president, he would ''instruct the Bureau of Indian Affairs to help tribes modernize their schools.''
His ads, which began airing yesterday, also center on education. One shows a clip of Bush from the Republican convention, in which he promised to ''teach all our children to read, and renew the promise of America's public schools.''
Kornblut reported from New Mexico; Milligan from Iowa.
