ADISON, Wis. - Annie Laurie Gaylor had one purpose in coming to Al Gore's rally here yesterday, and it wasn't to get close to the presidential candidate or even hear his thundering stump speech. It was to wave this sign in the faces of Ralph Nader supporters: ''Prevent a November Nightmare. Vote Gore!''
''Ralph Nader is taking advantage of his supporters to run a vanity campaign, and it has gone way beyond the symbolic and turned into something ugly, something that progressive people should be terrified of - the election of George W. Bush,'' said Gaylor, who lives in Madison and works for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group.
Gaylor's protest, however, had little impact: Hundreds of Nader supporters in this liberal college town turned out for their own rally, and to demonstrate that the Democrats' efforts here to paint a vote for Nader as a vote for Bush weren't changing their hearts or minds.
''I don't care if Bush wins - maybe it will galvanize Democrats to give us a less conservative candidate next time,'' said Virginia Bormann of suburban Bristol, who said she ''held her nose'' and voted for the Clinton-Gore ticket in 1992 but voted for Nader in 1996. She carried a sign that read, ''the lesser of two evils still leaves us with an evil.''
Madison is near ground zero in the escalating war that the Gore campaign is waging against Nader, the Green Party candidate who threatens to cut into Gore's liberal base in certain battleground states.
Four years ago, Nader got more votes for president than Republican Bob Dole did in some Madison precincts, and this year supporters such as Barbara Vedder, a local alderman, believes Nader will win in her district and could get from 5 to 10 percent of the vote in the state.
''We have a very progressive tradition here, and many voters see Nader as the only candidate standing up for the little people against the corporate interests and for those issues that are left out by the candidates of the two business-as-usual parties,'' Vedder said.
But there is tension - block to block, neighbor to neighbor - because the polls in Wisconsin are showing a razor-thin margin between Bush and Gore, and a Nader factor of even 5 percent could tip the balance here. Supporters of both Gore and Nader say it's creating some heated debates and divided loyalites on the left.
Ed Garvey, the former head of the NFL players' union and a liberal Democrat who lost to incumbent Governor Tommy Thompson in 1998, is a case in point: He initially endorsed Nader and introduced the consumer advocate at a rally here in Madison last month. But yesterday, in the shadow of the State Capitol, he was working the crowd for Gore.
''It's time to get serious,'' Garvey said, acknowledging his flirtation with Nader ''at a time when we thought the vote wouldn't count.'' Now, Garvey said, he still admires Nader but fears that supporting him could ''give Bush the chance to put another Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, or put Jesse Helms in charge of civil rights.''
Ben Manski, Nader's state director, accuses the Gore campaign of trying to suppress the Nader vote - not only by spreading an alarmist message, but by ''direct harassment.'' Manski said he received a call yesterday from a supporter who was outraged because his Nader-stickered van was searched by police in the neighorhood of the Capitol.
Manski noted, ''there has been a systematic attack'' on Nader yard signs; some Madison residents have had theirs stolen three times and have organized neighborhood-watch committees to protect them from theft. One homeowner has attached a motion-activated camera to his sign to make sure it doesn't get swiped, Manski said.
There have been guerrilla tactics on the Nader side, too. Every Friday, Nader supporters attempt to tie up traffic in Madison, frequently with somebody in a chicken suit asking why the major party candidates won't debate Nader.
Generally, the Nader-Gore confrontations in a town that loves politics have been polite, supporters of both candidates say. Still, the competition is causing hard feelings. US Representative Tammy Baldwin, a Madison Democrat who won her seat two years ago with the strong support of the campus and the liberal community, has become a strong advocate for Gore.
''Tammy's been given her orders from above,'' Vedder said. ''I'm disappointed, but I adore her and understand what it must be like to be the new kid on the block.''
Vedder and other Nader supporters have less sympathy for the liberal Democrats from outside Wisconsin who have come into the state to spread what they say is a message of fear. Among them have been US Representative Barney Frank of Newton, Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who told a Madison crowd last week, that ''we don't have the luxury to waste a vote on idle protest.''
They are also unhappy about a television ad running in Madison and paid for by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. It warns that Bush will end legal abortions and appoint antiabortion justices to the Supreme Court. ''Before voting Nader, consider the risk,'' it says.
''Attack ads in this market are the wrong way to neutralize the opposition,'' Manski said. ''Everytime one shows up, Nader will go up a point in the polls.''
Gore's staff here disagrees and points to polls that show Nader support is eroding, down from 9 percent in earlier polls to about 5 percent now.
''At the end of the day, it's a two-man race,'' said John Kraus, Gore's Wisconsin spokesman. ''People in this state realize the stakes are high, and the country will look very different under President Bush. It's Nader people who have the most to lose.''
Still, it was a measure of the Gore campaign's nervousness that the candidate scheduled a stop in a city that shouldn't need coaxing to turn out for a Democrat. Gore directly addressed the Nader wild card, saying a vote for Nader is just what corporate interests want, a vote to help Bush. ''They would say, `whatever you do, don't vote for Al Gore,''' Gore said.
Karen Tuerk, a student organizer for Nader, is unmoved. ''I talk to people every day who say, `I don't care if Bush wins. There is a lot more at stake here than who is president.'
''Bush is scary, but the more I listen to both candidates, I don't think Gore is as good as people think he is, and I don't think Bush is that bad,'' Tuerk said.
