ANCHESTER, N.H. - A day after a poll showed Texas Governor George W. Bush in a statistical dead heat with Arizona Senator John McCain in this state, the Bush campaign has bought Boston television time to reach southern New Hampshire voters.
The television ads, which are already airing on WMUR-TV in Manchester, will begin running next week on each of the Boston stations, including the Fox network. New Hampshire viewers will see the spots about three to five times a week, said one Bush official familiar with the ads.
Bush is following the lead of McCain, who was the first presidential candidate to place campaign ads on Boston television, targeting New Hampshire voters. McCain's biographical ad began airing in Boston at the beginning of this week. Bush also bought additional television time for a new ad in Iowa and South Carolina.
Rival campaigns said yesterday that Bush's prospects in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary, have been dimming, and the decision to go on television now is an effort to shore up Bush's support. Voters have complained that Bush has not spent enough time in New Hampshire, and he has been hammered for missing the last two forums for GOP candidates.
''They're trying to turn things around,'' said Paul Young, a senior adviser to Steve Forbes. ''Clearly, they've changed their strategy.''
Mike Dennehy, McCain's New England director, agreed.
''Now that we are statistically tied in New Hampshire, we have seen a dramatic shift beginning in the Bush campaign strategy,'' he said. ''I think it shows that they underestimated John McCain and his message of reform and his ability to connect one-on-one with voters in New Hampshire.''
But the Bush campaign said it had always intended to begin advertising before Thanksgiving and continue through the Feb. 1 primary. ''We have not yet done anything we didn't plan to do when we planned to do it,'' said Thomas D. Rath, a Bush adviser in Concord.
Forbes is also making an addition to his television buy. On Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., he will hold a 30-minute question-and-answer session with supporters on WMUR-TV. The broadcast will be live, and he will take phone calls on the air.
In addition, Forbes next week plans to begin a blitz of ads on national cable outlets, local network affiliates, and radio, the Knight Ridder News Service reported. The first priority, campaign manager Bill Dal Col said, is to ''put doubts in people's minds about Bush.''
But Forbes will try to avoid cementing his repuation for running negative ads, a reputation he gained after his attacks against Bob Dole and Lamar Alexander in the 1996 campaign. The new ads will chide Bush for playing it safe and for taking moderate or ill-defined positions on such issues as Social Security privatization.
On the Democratic side, Vice President Al Gore is running ads on New Hampshire television. Bill Bradley, the former New Jersey senator, is expected to put adds on the air before Thanksgiving.
