Bradley campaigned for black support in Florida, while Gore steered his drive for union and gay support to a construction site and a Lincoln Center stage in New York.

The vice president fired up union members by reviving his characterization of Bradley as a bad Democrat who is running for the party's presidential nomination "by running down the progress and achievements of the Democratic Party over the past seven years."

Gore's audience inside AFSCME District Council 37 cheered.

In cowboy boots and a green union-label hardhat, he earlier clambered over a stack of pipes to greet workers constructing a 41-story apartment building on the West Side. And later, he was taking the stage at Lincoln Center with The New York City Gay Men's Chorus for a performance of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and a narration of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

With the local issues and living rooms of Iowa and New Hampshire a memory, the Democratic rivals must assemble coalitions to form majorities in key primaries coming up.

Bradley was targeting minority voters, campaigning in Tampa by criticizing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to replace racial and gender preferences in education and business with increased outreach efforts and broader anti-discrimination laws.

"Affirmative action is about fairness, it's about social justice. It's about insuring that everyone has a fair chance," Bradley told about 200 people gathered at a local Italian club.

"A governor sets a tone, a president sets a tone," he said of the plan by Bush, the brother of GOP presidential front-runner George W. Bush. "This sets the wrong tone. It is the wrong signal at the wrong time."

On Tuesday, Bradley was to be in South Carolina to wade into the dispute surrounding the flying of the Confederate flag over the Statehouse in Columbia.

But it's been Gore who has built strong ties to key Democratic constituencies including labor and minorities over the past eight years.

He has kept those ties tight in meetings like the one he had at his hotel Monday with New York labor leaders. "It's always good to have that one-on-one communication, to touch the flesh," Lee Saunders, administrator of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local, said afterward.

Also on Monday, the AFL-CIO dropped 1 million pro-Gore fliers at 10,000 workplaces statewide, saying, "No one is better on working family issues" than Gore.

Outside analysts said it won't be easy for Bradley to push past such deeply rooted feelings among core Democratic supporters.

"Gore is much better known among black politicians for a much longer period of time," said Merle Black of Emory University. "I don't know how Bradley breaks through that."

And then there was Larry White, one of the construction workers waiting to shake Gore's hand in New York. Asked about Bradley, White shrugged. "Don't know nothing about him, don't want to. Al Gore has the experience because he's been in the White House for eight years with the president," said White.

Trying to break through, Bradley was diverting from his tight focus on states where primaries are planned March 7, going for the symbolism of the Confederate flag in South Carolina.

Bradley is a former professional basketball player, and he also frequently brings in teammates and competitors from his playing days who are especially popular figures in the minority community.

"There's probably some linkage there," said Thad Beyle of the University of North Carolina.

Polls show Gore with a big lead nationally over Bradley. On Monday, the latest Field Poll in California, where both candidates will campaign at week's end, showed Gore 41 points ahead of Bradley.

Gore led in CNN-USA Today-Gallup and Pew polls in late January by at least 40 points among women and more than 40 points among blacks. He also led by almost 40 points in labor households.

In actual voting, in Iowa, Gore had a 35-point lead over Bradley in labor households, and in the closer race in New Hampshire he had a 25-point lead, according to exit polls.

The competition for core Democratic groups could lay land mines for the general election if, for example, Bradley and Gore try to one-up each other on affirmative action. By contrast, Bill Clinton courted moderates in 1992 by challenging black groups.

"The Republicans will gleefully take notes and throw it back at them in the fall," said Hugh Graham, of Vanderbilt University.

Also on Monday, representatives of the Gore and Bradley campaigns failed to reach agreement on whether the candidates will hold regular debates, according to Bradley spokesman Hauser. Bradley has challenged Gore to debate once a week, while the vice president wants to debate twice a week -- but only if the two candidates give up most TV ads as part of any deal. The two sides will discuss the issue again Tuesday.