McCain supporters fought back with phone efforts of their own, bearing down especially in battleground counties around Detroit with a large Catholic vote -- reminding people that Bush visited a South Carolina school that has been critical of Catholicism.

Outside help for the Texas governor was evident everywhere in the state. Veterans of Michigan Gov. John Engler's successful campaigns called supporters to get them to vote, as did members of Michigan Right to Life, the state's main anti-abortion group.

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson took to the phones to criticize McCain. And national anti-abortion and smokers' rights groups flooded the airwaves with ads.

The Engler campaign organization, which helped the Michigan governor win three terms, put its resources behind Bush. Campaign workers went through lists of Engler supporters, asking them to turn out for Bush.

"He's got every single Republican who's ever made a phone call in the last 20 years making phone calls on behalf of Gov. Bush," Michigan Republican Party spokesman Sage Eastman said.

"There's a foundation in place," said Geralyn Lasher, a veteran of the Engler administration who is now working for Bush. "This is how we were successful. This is the strategy that we've seen in Michigan that wins elections."

Callers read from a script that said, in part, "After Gov. Bush's big victory in South Carolina and Delaware, he is campaigning hard across your state to earn your trust. Gov. George W. Bush is a reformer with results."

If Engler and his allies missed any likely Bush supporters, Michigan Right to Life was also on the hunt. The anti-abortion group had its own phone banks humming.

"They have been pounding their list and really driving the message home," Eastman said.

The National Right to Life group reported airing at least $27,000 worth of radio advertisements in Michigan, according to Federal Election Commission records. And Black Americans for Life spent $2,300 running radio ads against McCain, FEC records show.

The National Smokers Alliance, which gets tobacco industry money, has run ads criticizing McCain's past support of a cigarette tax increase.

Robertson recorded a phone call that accused a top McCain campaign official of being "a vicious bigot who wrote that conservative Christians in politics are anti-abortion zealots, homophobes and would-be censors. John McCain refused to repudiate these words."

The official in question is former Sen. Warren Rudman, one of five co-chairmen of McCain's campaign.

Rudman angered some Christian conservative leaders in 1995 by defending retired Gen. Colin Powell against their attacks over abortion. Rudman wrote about the controversy in a book in which, among other things, he said the religious right has a lot of "bigots."

While McCain's campaign did not muster nearly as much effort as the Bush people did Tuesday, it focused sharply on the Catholic vote as well making broad appeals to independents and Democrats. Phone calls from the campaign cited Bush's visit to Bob Jones University, the South Carolina college that bans interracial dating and is said by critics to espouse anti-Catholic views.

McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky at first denied the campaign was making such calls but later conceded it had done so.

Bush called on some friends in lofty places to counter the tactic instantly. Governors from nine states immediately rushed to their colleague's defense, issuing statements Tuesday defending Bush's record.

"I've known George Bush since we were in college at Yale," said one of the nine, New York Gov. George Pataki. "He's a man of inclusion, tolerance and honor. The attacks against him that imply anything other than that are wrong, malicious and obviously coming from a desperate political campaign."

At the behest of Bush's campaign, three Catholic senators issued statements complaining that McCain's organization had made calls to Catholic voters citing Bush's visit to Bob Jones University.

"As a Catholic, I take offense at any attempt to use religion to frighten voters," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "George W. Bush is a good a decent man who doesn't have an intolerant bone in his body. To suggest that Governor Bush is somehow anti-Catholic is outrageous and obscene."

There was so much outside activity that both campaigns sought to use it as a political weapon.

"Mr. McCain's making phone calls in this state accusing me of being an anti-Catholic bigot, and I don't appreciate it," Bush said in response to the calls about Bob Jones University.

Opinsky returned fire at the Robertson calls. He called it an example of the Bush campaign using outside groups to make "totally false allegations against John McCain. It's the same tactics they used in South Carolina."