EATTLE - Tired of languishing in Arizona Senator John McCain's shadow, Bill Bradley crossed the continent searching for a spotlight that would shine on him.
Instead, he found McCain.
The morning after Bradley stormed into Seattle and declared Washington a crucial battleground in his quest for the presidency, he awakened yesterday to this banner headline on the front page of the state's largest newspaper: ''State gives McCain big smile.''
The lead story on the local morning news? A report on McCain's plane getting stuck in the mud at a local airport.
And the reaction of Bradley's top local supporter? ''If I were Bill Bradley, I would be pulling my hair out,'' said US Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington Democrat. ''It's got to be frustrating.''
Bradley, his hair thinning but his optimism apparently intact, was left once again to spin a scenario in which the McCain juggernaut could benefit him even as it knocks him off the news and inspires independents and Democrats alike to cast ballots for McCain in Republican primaries.
In Bradley's scenario, voters who want a Democratic president eventually will realize that McCain, a champion of overhauling the campaign finance system, would crush Gore in the general election because of the vice president's role in the 1996 fund-raising scandals.
''If they're worried that what I'm saying about Al Gore is tough, they're going to have a much different situation in the fall,'' Bradley said in a news conference at the University of Washington. ''It's a risk not just to his candidacy but to everything that Democrats have held dear.''
Bradley has only four days until Washington's nonbinding primary on Tuesday to work magic with his message. He plans to spend every day in the state until then on the theory that faring well would jump-start his stalled campaign before the critical round of primaries on March 7.
Bradley is banking on Washington's tradition of bucking the Democratic establishment or snubbing the party's front-runner in favor of a maverick, often liberal, alternative. Past beneficiaries of Washington's independence include Paul Tsongas, Gary Hart, and Jerry Brown.
Yet Bradley said he is so far down that it may look like up even if he loses in Washington. Polls have shown him trailing Gore by more than 25 points in the state.
''We're so far behind here that the expectation is that we're not going to be able to do anything,'' he said. ''If we're able to do something, it affects it positively.''
Bradley is getting no more help from Washington's Democratic establishment than he is from McCain. The governor, Gary Locke, has mobilized his forces behind Gore. And the state's Democratic chairman, Paul Berendt, greeted Bradley with a less than warm ''Welcome to Washington'' letter.
''We are glad to have you in our great state,'' Berendt wrote to Bradley. ''However, we are deeply troubled that you have chosen Washington as the state to launch your negative attack against Al Gore. These attacks are bad for democracy and bad for the Democratic Party.''
Bradley bolstered his arrival in Washington with a 30-second radio attack ad, the first of his campaign, that depicts Gore as a flip-flopping former conservative. An announcer in the ad asks, ''When it comes right down to it, what does Al Gore really stand for?''
Gore's camp blasted Bradley for engaging in the kind of mudslinging he had vowed to avoid. Bradley responded that his hands were clean. ''I don't think it's negative campaigning when you tell the truth about somebody's record,'' he said.
In addition, Bradley's spokesman, Eric Hauser, accused Gore's team of ''unbelievable hypocrisy'' for criticizing Bradley's ad, which was similar to a spot that Gore ran against Richard Gephardt, the House minority leader, in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary.
''Who is the real Dick Gephardt?'' Gore's ad asked at the time.
''I invite them to criticize themselves today,'' Hauser said. ''They have run away from their past so hard that they are clearly kneeling for breath.''
Bradley held town meetings yesterday in Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, focusing on education, gun control, and the environment, and sniping at Gore. Former Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, who lives in Seattle, attended the University of Washington event on Bradley's behalf.
Bradley also launched two new television ads, including a two-minute biographical spot that includes testimonials from Senators Daniel P. Moynihan of New York and Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, and Willis Reed, Bradley's former teammate on the New York Knicks.
The other ad promotes Bradley as ''the only candidate'' who supports ''access to health care for all Americans'' and ''has always fought for gun control.''
In his bid to catch Gore, Bradley also conducted more than 20 interviews with local journalists in his first 24 hours in Washington. Yet given the opportunity to assign blame for his poor standing, Bradley declined to point fingers.
''Every campaign has to accept full responsibility for where it is at a particular time,'' he said, ''and I do.''
