or the first time in many presidential elections, Massachusetts is suddenly being considered a battleground state.
Texas Governor George W. Bush has set up a victory fund committee to raise money over the next month for 20 key states around the country, including traditionally Democratic Massachusetts. About 100 Bush finance leaders began dialing for dollars this week, and the Bush campaign has transferred staff to the committee to help the effort.
The money will be given to state Republican parties to compete in the 2000 general election with party-building activities. At the same time, it will free up party coffers to help support local candidate races.
The Massachusetts GOP is slated to receive 3.8 percent of the total pot, calculated on the basis of its electoral votes. California, by contrast, will get about 17 percent.
''In most years, if something like this had been done, we would have been left out,'' said Rob Gray, who runs Governor Paul Cellucci's political committee.
The reason for the Commonwealth's newfound status? Some polls show Bush leading Vice President Al Gore in Massachusetts.
Gore is talking to the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa in a new, 30-second television ad calling for health care for every child in America.
''I think it's just unconscionable at a time when we have the strongest economy in history, we're the wealthiest nation on earth, to have millions and millions of children who have no health care coverage at all,'' Gore says, looking directly into the camera. ''We ought to change that.''
Gore says health care for every child should be achieved before the end of the next president's term, within a balanced budget. ''Then we can go down the road toward coverage for every single American,'' he says, in a dig at his opponent, former New Jersey senator Bill Bradley.
Gore and Bradley have been arguing in recent weeks over health care proposals. Bradley has called Gore's plan ''timid,'' and Gore has said Bradley's plan is too expensive and would ''shred the social safety net.''
Bradley, meanwhile, has yet to hit the New Hampshire airwaves with any television commercials.
Now, it's really official. Unless you've given New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner a check for $1,000 and a one-page registration form, you aren't running for president in the first-in-the-nation-primary state.
Yesterday, Bush filed with Gardner, and so did Tipper Gore, on behalf of her husband.
Gary Bauer, a former Reagan administration official, filed on Tuesday and Orrin G. Hatch, a Utah senator, submitted his check Monday. Alan Keyes, a former ambassador, handed in his paperwork last week.
Among lesser-known candidates are: Samuel H. Berry Jr., a Republican from Medford, Ore.; Andy Martin, a Republican from West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Vincent S. Hamm, a Democrat from Golden, Colo.
