ES MOINES - While Bill Bradley depicted his campaign as an insurgency ''against entrenched power,'' Vice President Al Gore demonstrated his connections to influential Democrats by barnstorming through Iowa yesterday with Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the eve of another debate.
Bradley and Gore will meet here today in an hourlong, nationally televised debate at 2 p.m. EST.
Although there appear to be no stark differences between the two Democratic presidential candidates, Bradley used the hours before he began private debate preparation to renew his pitch for a universal health care program that Gore has criticized as too costly.
Bradley continues to reject Gore's proposal to replace television commercials with frequent public debates. Nevertheless, today's encounter will be their fifth of the political season, and another Iowa debate is scheduled for Jan. 17.
Aides to Bradley say Gore's insistence on more debates is an attempt to divert Bradley from efforts to build a national organization to compete with the vice president's extensive operation.
In a Des Moines press conference, Bradley said it would ''not be a major blow'' to his campaign if he lost in Iowa, and he pointed out some of Gore's obvious advantages: the support of the White House political apparatus, the blessings of organized labor, the loyalty of most members of the Democratic National Committee, and the financial backing of well-connected fund-raisers.
Gore's alliance extends to the state level. A majority of Iowa's Democratic legislators and state officials have endorsed Gore, and Senator Tom Harkin is prepared to throw his organization behind the vice president.
In a caucus situation, the impressive coalition would seem to give Gore an edge when Iowans cast the first votes in the 2000 presidential campaign Jan. 24.
''The high point for an insurgent in Iowa was 1980 when Ted Kennedy got around 30 percent or 31 percent of the vote. That's the most that anybody ever got as an insurgent in Iowa,'' Bradley said. ''I'm up against entrenched power.''
A poll conducted this week for several Iowa television stations found that Gore's lead had slipped since he held a 39-point lead last summer. The survey of 300 likely caucus voters gave Gore 45.4 percent and Bradley 32.3 percent, while showing 22.3 percent undecided. The poll had a margin of error of 5.4 percentage points.
One of the factors that may have narrowed the race is Gore's tie to President Clinton.
Although Clinton has not campaigned for Gore in Iowa, Bradley's state campaign manager, Dan Lucas, said, ''Bill Clinton is everywhere. He's like Banquo's ghost. In terms of the calculations people are making, they're wondering: Do we want to give a third term to Clinton?''
Throughout his seven years in office and his impeachment ordeal, the president maintained a base in Iowa, a state he carried in 1992 and 1996. Despite his troubles, he remains popular, Iowa Democratic officials say.
But Bradley's strategists say they have been able to develop a following among Democrats weary of Clinton and eager to make a fresh start.
When Steve Hildebrand, the director of Gore's campaign in Iowa, was asked if he wanted Clinton to campaign here for Gore, he said, ''That's something you'll have to ask the vice president.''
However, the Gore campaign had no reservations about Kennedy's appearance, even though the Massachusetts senator has had his own personal problems and was beaten badly in Iowa when he challenged President Carter in 1980.
Over the past two decades, Hildebrand said, ''Kennedy's become the father of the party,'' a champion of Catholic voters, laborers, and liberals - constituencies Kennedy campaigned among yesterday. Alluding to his poor showing in 1980, Kennedy last night told a crowd of several hundred at a Gore rally: ''If you support Al Gore for president, all is forgiven.''
Though both Gore and Bradley danced around the term ''liberal'' without disavowing it during a debate in New Hampshire on Wednesday night, their campaigns have been targeting liberals here.
''There's an old saying in Iowa,'' said Lucas of the Bradley campaign. ''You can't be too liberal. This state always had a huge peace community.''
Yesterday, Bradley reached out to that group by announcing that he would sign the Ottawa treaty to ban antipersonnel land mines.
In an interview yesterday, Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams, a leader of the campaign against land mines, praised Bradley. In Iowa to press presidential candidates on the issue, she said: ''We want them to say they will sign it immediately. I have read that Gore has endorsed the treaty. That is not enough.''
Noting that Clinton has not signed the treaty, she called Gore's position ''an echo of the hollow policies of the Clinton administration.''
