ANCHESTER, N.H. - As Bill Bradley continued to assail Al Gore, and George W. Bush criticized John McCain, the New Hampshire secretary of state predicted yesterday that the heated contests in both party primaries would produce a record turnout at the polls Tuesday.
William Gardner estimated that 191,000 Republican ballots and 160,000 Democratic ballots will be cast next week, more than in any previous New Hampshire primary. The secretary of state based his figures on absentee ballots, conversations with town clerks and a bit of guesswork.
''Usually when the economy is good, people don't vote,'' Gardner said. But the closeness of the races in both parties is likely to counter that assumption, he said.
Meanwhile, tension between the Democratic candidates continued to mark their primary as the more disagreeable of the two.
Yesterday was Day 2 of the newly combative Bradley as he continued to portray Gore as unfit for the presidency because, he said, Gore has violated the public trust with a dishonest campaign against Bradley.
''If you don't care enough about people to tell the truth in a campaign, how do they know you're going to care enough about them to push for health care or good education in this country,'' Bradley said on the shore of Great Bay in Stratham after receiving the endorsement of numerous New Hampshire environmental leaders. ''That's a fundamental question of credibility.''
Bradley denied that he abruptly forsook his kid-gloves approach to the campaign in an effort to shore up his fragile political fortunes. He suffered a decisive loss in the Iowa primaries and had recently slipped in the New Hampshire polls.
New Boston Globe/WBZ tracking figures showed the vice president maintaining his lead over Bradley, 49 to 40 percent, with 11 percent undecided, following their acrimonious debate Wednesday. Bradley and Gore are scheduled for what may be their last face-to-face meeting before the primary tonight at a state party fund-raiser in Nashua.
Of his counterattack against Gore, Bradley said, ''I waited a long while to make it. ... But I felt it was important to do. I had built up the credibility in New Hampshire over the last year, and I thought as the voters went in to make their decision in the last week of the campaign they needed to know they had been subject to misrepresentations and misleading statements by my opponent.''
Bradley's aides said he had resisted appeals from some of his advisers and supporters to make a face-to-face attack on Gore. But they said he decided to make his stand in New Hampshire rather than wait until the five-week interlude before the March 7 primaries.
''Last night was a way of saying, `Enough is enough,' '' Bradley said.
Gore, however, dismissed Bradley's accusations and said it is Bradley who is the negative campaigner.
''I don't understand how someone can condemn negative attacks while in the same breath can make negative attacks,'' Gore told reporters after speaking to workers at Silk Net, a high tech firm here.
With multiple candidates in the Republican race, the tone was far less bruising yesterday as Bush picked up a plum endorsement, McCain continued his town hall tours and Steve Forbes visited a Nashua restaurant.
The Globe/WBZ tracking poll showed last night that the two Republican front-runners remain deadlocked in New Hampshire, with McCain enjoying a slender advantage at 36 percent to Bush's 34. Among other candidates, Forbes held steady at 11 percent; Keyes polled 7 percent; Gary Bauer had 3 percent. Eight percent were undecided.
The poll, which sampled the opinions of 400 likely Democrat and 400 likely Republican primary voters, has a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
Bush brought Jack Kemp, the 1996 vice presidential nominee, with him to the Sanders plant in Nashua, where Kemp praised Bush and Bush took a whack at McCain.
''I think when the Republicans go into the booths in New Hampshire and around the country, it's important to nominate somebody who will be able to debate the Democratic nominee on key issues, not mimic them,'' Bush said.
Bush said a McCain remark in the Wednesday night debate made his point. ''When he said his tax plan was similar to President Clinton's tax plan, it made it real clear the difference of opinion on taxes,'' said Bush.
What McCain actually said, however, was that Clinton had moved toward a plan like his, not the other way around.
Globe Staff writers Ann Scales, with Gore, Michael Crowley, with Forbes, and Yvonne Abraham, with McCain, contributed to this report.
