ALLAHASSEE - As Governor George W. Bush's struggle to capture Florida's 25 electoral votes intensified this month, the unexpected closeness of the contest exposed some of the tensions in his delicate political relationship with his younger brother, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida.
Though Jeb Bush has quietly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for his brother, his public role has been restrained by his concerns about the ''dynasty thing,'' according to a close relative. Others say Jeb Bush is deferring to the wishes of the presidential campaign in Austin, Texas, which is anxious to avoid the appearance that the candidate is riding the popularity of his brother in Florida or that of their father, former president George Bush.
Though the Florida governor traveled to Boston to give his brother moral support at last week's debate, he did not circulate among the hundreds of reporters to argue George W. Bush's case, as did other prominent Republican governors, including John Engler of Michigan and George Pataki of New York. Jeb Bush has raised a lot of money for his brother's campaign, but he has not been a regular on the stump. Earlier in the year, when Jeb Bush did not join his brother at a campaign event in Florida, the candidate quipped, ''I'm a little disappointed the chairman of my campaign is late.''
After Vice President Al Gore suddenly moved up to challenge Bush in a state the Republicans had taken for granted, some disgruntled GOP partisans began to fault the Florida governor for his low-key approach.
Polls here have bounced around in recent weeks, with Gore ahead slightly in a Mason-Dixon survey published a week ago and Bush ahead slightly now. What is clear is that Bush's once commanding lead here has vanished.
Though acknowledging that the race had tightened, Stuart Stevens, one of George W. Bush's top aides, said, ''It's not about Jeb.''
Gore's rise is largely attributed to his selection of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate, a choice that energized Florida's substantial Jewish population, and the Democrat's proposal to add prescription drugs to Medicare benefits, a plan that wins high marks among tens of thousands of retired residents.
''The Democrats put a lot of emphasis'' on the vice president's prescription drug plan while building ''enthusiasm with frequent visits by Gore and Lieberman to a state where the impossible is now possible,'' says Susan McManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida. ''There's some grousing about Jeb Bush by Republicans, but he's still stinging from his first campaign, when he was criticized for having his family come in, for being unable to win on his own. He's trying to balance that now.''
Since Jeb Bush has high favorability ratings in the state and ''crossover appeal'' to Democrats, ''he doesn't want to jeopardize that'' with a nakedly partisan push this fall, McManus said.
But to win the crucial state, Republicans are counting on Jeb Bush's political organization to come through on Election Day.
Those who know the Florida governor say he will undoubtedly roll out the network he developed in each county during two statewide campaigns, an unsuccessful race for governor in 1994 and a winning one in 1998.
Though no one doubts Jeb's affection for his brother, the Floridian remains relucant to be compared with the Texas governor. ''He feels it's a lose-lose situation,'' said one journalist in the Florida capital. ''He's fearful of being publicly identified with his brother. He doesn't want stories that say Jeb is smarter, a better campaigner, stories that say Jeb's programs work better in Florida than George W.'s in Texas.''
As an example of the touchy situation, the governor's office in Tallahassee told the Globe that any interview with Jeb Bush involving presidential politics had to be arranged through his brother's campaign in Austin. George W. Bush's aides did not set up an interview despite repeated requests over the past week.
As members of a close but competitive family, there have always been undercurrents of rivalry between George W. Bush, who is 54, and Jeb, who is seven years younger.
In 1994, Jeb seemed irked when George W. jumped into the race for governor of Texas at a time when Jeb was planning to run for governor of Florida. When asked that spring which sibling was first to become a candidate, Jeb told a Globe reporter, ''I think I was first.'' He then asked the reporter, who had interviewed his brother earlier in the week, ''What did George tell you?'' Grinning, Jeb Bush also accused his older brother of ''outright robbery'' in stealing Jeb's best lines in the campaign.
''I'm sure there's some sibling rivalry,'' says their first cousin, John Ellis. ''But it's mostly teasing.'' Ellis recalled that George W.'s brothers taunted him ''unmercifully'' for his political ambitions at their father's inauguration as president in 1989. ''George was talking about running for statewide office then, and they started calling him `governor.'''
Ellis said Jeb Bush ''has done tons for George'' in fund-raising, but may have avoided some public appearances because ''whatever you get out of the Bush brand you get with George. The dynasty thing complicates it.''
Ellis, a consultant who has served as a political adviser for the NBC and Fox television networks, said he communicates regularly with Jeb Bush via e-mail. ''His name is John Ellis Bush, so of course we're close. I'm the pessimist and he's the optimist. He's always been the one who thought things would work out for George. Maybe somewhere out there he thinks `it should be me,' but he never communicated that to me.
''Jeb wants people to understand he's first and foremost the governor of Florida,'' Ellis said. ''There's a bunch of couch stuff about Jeb thinking it should be him - garbage that runs through the media. The fact of the matter is that it's not Jeb's time.''
Though Jeb Bush might someday seek national office if he wins reelection in 2002, his cousin said Jeb was ''not brooding darkly'' over George W.'s current primacy.
Jim Krog, who served as chief of staff to Jeb Bush's Democratic predecessor, the late governor Lawton Chiles, says, ''Jeb is being careful, doing only what he's asked. It's difficult to transfer popularity.''
A governor of Florida, Krog said, has a built-in political apparatus that is primarily related to fund-raising. ''To energize that around someone else is a whole other issue. Jeb has been good at telling'' the George W. Bush campaign, ''here's an opportunity. But he's been real careful how he does it. He doesn't want to intrude on the campaign.''
