ULLES, Va. - With his once formidable lead in Virginia cut by half, Governor George W. Bush bid for votes at America Online headquarters here yesterday, calling Senator John McCain a two-faced candidate with a Democratic agenda whose policies would hurt the high-tech industry.
Moving across the state from Newport News on the Atlantic shore to the Washington suburbs and from there to Richmond, Bush sought to smudge McCain's image with the Republican faithful.
''He says he is the Ronald Reagan in the race,'' Bush said of McCain. ''It's not Reaganesque to defend Bill Clinton's tax hikes. ... It's not Reaganesque to say one thing and do another.''
Virginia has long been considered Bush territory, but voters here may be wavering. A Mason-Dixon poll published yesterday showed Bush's lead over McCain had shrunk to 11 points, 48-37 percent. Before losing the Michigan primary this week, Bush's lead was 23 points.
A second new poll conducted by the American Research Group showed Bush leading McCain 44-36 percent in Virginia. The Texan led by 50-24 percent among Republicans, expected to make up 71 percent of the electorate, but McCain led 65-29 percent among Democrats and independents.
The party establishment, led by popular Governor Jim Gilmore and Senator John Warner, backs Bush. But Tuesday's primary, while slightly more restrictive than that held in Michigan, is another open contest in which McCain's independent supporters can cast Republican ballots.
Bush expressed confidence in Virginia's verdict, but his staff made a last-minute addition to the schedule, an airport rally in Newport News, where McCain is expected to appeal to veterans and military families at one of the nation's largest concentration of military facilities.
McCain has also found support in the high-tech community by vowing to never tax Internet sales and services, and is thought to be strongest in the northern Virginia suburbs, where AOL and dozens of other high-tech firms have transformed the local politics and landscape.
The Bush campaign distributed a fact sheet yesterday that alleged that McCain's tax policies would harm other sacred cows of the new economy, like deductability of stock options and advertising expenditures.
''Senator McCain believes we ought to tax advertising dollars,'' Bush added, ''which will hurt AOL and the high tech industry.''
Bush did a live, one-hour Internet broadcast at AOL headquarters, in which he spoke about his favorite musical groups (the Everly Brothers, Aaron Neville, Van Morrison), condemned the short-lived Fox television show ''Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?'' as a symbol of what is wrong in American culture, and announced that his pet cat Cowboy had died.
The AOL employees in the audience, clad in khakis and blue jeans, let out a sympathetic chorus of ''Awwwwwwwwwwww'' at the news of Cowboy's demise. ''We've still got Ernie and India - two cats - and a dog named Spot,'' Bush reassured them.
The audience members laughed along with the candidate when Bush lit into the Fox TV show. ''It's ridiculous. What kind of society is this?'' Bush asked. ''Marriage is powerful. Marriage is love.'' As president he promised ''to blow the whistle on pop culture.''
At a news conference after the show, Bush remained on the defensive over his appearance in South Carolina at Bob Jones University, where college officials have made anti-Catholic statements.
''I'm pro-life. I'm pro-family,'' Bush said when asked what he tells Catholic voters. ''People know this is a political game. It is guilt by association. I reject ... a candidate calling me an anti-Catholic bigot.
''I'm running against a man who on one hand says he is going to run a clean campaign and on the other hand makes phone calls in Michigan talking about anti-Catholic bias,'' said Bush.
On the Internet and at his news conference, Bush dismissed reports that his $70 million campaign is short on funds, and he rejected charges that he is running too negative a campaign.
''If a man says there is an iron triangle in Washington of lobbyists and special interests, and he's ringing it like a dinner bell, I'm going to point it out,'' Bush said, alluding to McCain's own fund-raising practices.
Gilmore predicted yesterday that Virginians would still back Bush. ''I don't think George Bush is vulnerable anywhere in this state. We care about tax cuts, we care about educational improvement and reform, and that is what he has done in Texas,'' the governor said.
Representative Thomas Davis, a Republican who represents part of the Northern Virginia suburbs, noted that several of McCain's pet causes in Congress cut against his constituents. McCain's attempts to boost the number of flights from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have alienated civic groups that fight jet noise, Davis said.
McCain's military reform plans do not call for construction of many new submarines, which could harm him with defense workers near Newport News. And the senator's campaign for higher cigarette taxes will not go down well with tobacco growers in southern Virginia.
Virginia Republicans, meanwhile, should be grateful that Bush took the time to raise half a million dollars for the state party at a fund-raising dinner in Richmond last night.
McCain has assets in the state, however. Aside from his naval ties to the Norfolk-Newport News area, and his appeal to the 30 percent of Virginia's voters who are independents, he attended prep school in the Northern Virginia suburbs before entering the US Naval Academy.
And though they will have to sign a card promising not to participate in any other party's nomination process, the Democrats and independents who have been drawn to McCain in other states will be able to vote in the Republican primary Tuesday.
