OLUMBUS, Ohio - Hoping for a reprise of his Michigan victory, John McCain barnstormed through Ohio yesterday, trying to win the hearts of voters - especially Republican voters.
Democrat Bill Bradley, campaigning in Washington state, accused the state Democratic Party of violating its pledge of neutrality and boycotted a party event in protest.
Three days before Washington's nonbinding primary, the last Democratic clash before the crucial round of primaries on March 7, Bradley blasted the state party's decision to set up a caucus site inside Vice President Al Gore's campaign office in Seattle.
That move ''probably says it all'' about Bradley's contention that the state party has abandoned ''any pretense of neutrality,'' Bradley's state director, Robert Becker, wrote yesterday to party chairman Paul Berendt.
In protest, Bradley canceled plans to attend the party's ''presidential primary chili fest'' yesterday and said he held a dueling chili fest across the street.
Gore and Bradley were scheduled to speak at the state NAACP chapter's 60th anniversary dinner last night, though they were not expected to cross paths.
Bradley started his day in Spokane, where he told about 400 supporters that his effort to close Gore's large lead in Washington was showing signs of success.
''Tuesday is the time for the state of Washington to step forward and send a message to the rest of the country,'' Bradley said, ''This could be the launching pad and you can be the rockets that make us take off.''
Since McCain's victory in the Michigan primary, in which Democrats and independents outnumbered Republicans, the Arizona senator has been pushing his GOP credentials, partly to head off claims by Texas Governor George W. Bush, that the senator lacks support in his own party.
At a rally in Ohio yesterday, and at a San Diego event Friday night, handwritten signs read, ''Republicans for McCain.''
While Bush was in Austin yesterday, taking a break from campaigning, McCain's day began with a tour through Cleveland's West Side Market. Narrow aisles were jammed with supporters as McCain moved among the stalls, chatting with shopkeepers, signing copies of his book, and shaking hundreds of hands.
Paul Ferguson of Cleveland Heights, a registered Democrat, said he would vote for McCain in Ohio's primary March 7, even though there is a Democratic primary the same day.
''I don't like candidates who are anointed. I don't mind George W. Bush, but too many endorsements doesn't smell right,'' Ferguson said.
''I don't know where McCain stands on a variety of issues,'' he said. ''But he seems authentic. I just want somebody with a bit of fire in the White House.''
At least one voter took issue with the claims of Bush and other Republicans that McCain was reaching beyond the party's base for support.
''It's baloney,'' said Ed Klimas of Lyndhurst. ''I used to be a Republican. But I got so disgusted with the party that I became an Independent. This is the first guy who's gotten my blood pressure up in my lifetime.''
McCain later tried to dispel doubts about his conservativism at a town hall meeting at Ohio State University before about 2,000 people. He referred to his Republican heroes, particularly Ronald Reagan, and called himself ''the real fiscal conservative in this race.''
He also gave a couple of acid responses to two groups of protesters for liberal causes. When the first group, protesting the relocation of Native Americans of the Navajo nation, began chanting, McCain stood and listened to them. After security guards forced them to stop, McCain said: ''You know, guys, it'd be a lot more convincing if you brought a Native American with you once in a while.''
To the second protesters, who shouted, ''Give us a living wage!'' McCain's response was far swifter.
''I'd be glad to,'' he told them. ''Go to work!''
Abraham reported from Ohio, Hohler from Seattle.
