ANCHESTER, N.H. - As a muffling blanket of snow settled on the first primary state, the two insurgent candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley, yesterday began a weeklong campaigning blitz, hoping to reverse the strong Iowa showing by the national front-runners with an appeal to New Hampshire's famously independent nature.
Bradley, beaten 2-to-1 by Vice President Al Gore in Iowa, did not switch to a tougher tone, as he has suggested he might and some of his supporters think he must, now that his support in the Granite State appears to be slipping.
A new Boston Globe/WBZ-TV poll finds Gore with a slender 48 to 42 percent lead among likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire - the first time since the Globe started polling the race in August that either candidate has enjoyed a lead outside the survey's 5 percentage point margin of error.
But instead of shifting its emphasis on the eve of the last candidate debate in New Hampshire - Republican and Democratic candidates will both clash in Manchester tonight - the Bradley campaign continued with a strategy launched in Iowa, dispatching several political surrogates, including Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, to argue that Gore's attacks on Bradley's positions were untrue. Bradley confined himself to urging voters to send a message that they are ''tired of attack politics.''
On the Republican side, a visibly weary George W. Bush, who celebrated his Iowa victory at a 2 a.m. rally at the Manchester airport, slept late and worked out at a local Gold's Gym, preparing for a much tougher fight than in Iowa. McCain, who did not actively campaign in Iowa, is in many polls here running even with the Texas governor, while Steve Forbes, after a strong second-place Iowa finish, planned to use his fortune for a statewide advertising blitz.
''This is going to be an intense week of campaigning, but it was a good beginning for New Hampshire to come in with a solid victory,'' Bush said.
The new Globe/WBZ poll showed that Bush, too, has his work cut out for him if he is to win in New Hampshire.
The survey of 400 likely Republican primary voters found that the GOP race remains a statistical tie, with McCain holding a slight advantage with 37 percent to Bush's 34 percent.
The survey was taken Monday and Tuesday nights, with half the sampling performed after the results of the Monday's Iowa caucuses were known. The results suggest that Bush's convincing win in Iowa has not, at least so far, affected his standing in New Hampshire.
But the poll found that Gore is apparently enjoying a lift from his Iowa win. Polling taken for the Globe just before the caucuses found the Gore-Bradley race a dead heat. Gore's move into a slight lead appears to have begun only after the caucus results were known.
''It appears that New Hampshire has been influenced somewhat by Gore's large victory in Iowa, and those who are undecided are gravitating his way,'' said Gerry Chervinsky, president of KRC Communications Research, which conducted the poll.
The poll offered little consolation for other candidates in the Republican field. Publisher Steve Forbes, drew 11 percent support in the survey, down from his 14 percent showing in a January 5-6 Globe/WBZ poll. Former ambassador Alan Keyes drew 8 percent in the new poll, up from 5 percent in the earlier survey but still far out of the running. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, who reportedly plans to drop out of the race today, drew 2 percent in the new poll; former Reagan administration official Gary Bauer, 1 percent.
Last night Keyes, speaking from Michigan where he was stranded by the snow, predicted that he would come in ahead of Forbes in the New Hampshire primary.
The candidates arriving from Iowa were greeted yesterday by a surprise winter snowstorm, which carpeted the countryside in a dazzling white. The storm slowed down motorcades, delayed flights from Iowa, and provided the perfect New Hampshire backdrop for photos.
Gore stopped his entourage at Dunkin' Donuts to pick up coffee for city workers operating the snowplows. Bradley insisted on taking a few quick questions from reporters outside Alvirne High School in Hudson to take advantage of the wintry effect. And McCain's ''Straight Talk Express'' bus fell victim to the weather and stalled on the road to Hillsborough, forcing the Arizona senator onto a backup bus. Keyes, who is running ads here and hoping for a bounce from his strong Iowa showing, was delayed in coming here due to flight cancellations.
On the Democratic side of the primary, the Bradley campaign continued to promise a new attitude, even as the campaign focused on old grievances with Gore - the vice president's criticisms of Bradley's record on farm relief votes and his questioning of Bradley's views on Medicare and Medicaid.
Kerrey asserted that an ad Gore ran in Iowa criticizing Bradley's farm record cost Bradley enough votes to keep him below the 40 percent he needed to meet his campaign target for the Iowa caucuses.
''That ad, while inaccurate, was effective,'' Kerrey said. ''But it's important because it sets up an opportunity for Bill to talk about trust and how you acquire trust. You don't acquire trust by misrepresenting. You may win, but winning doesn't necessarily give you the authority to do the things you would like to do.''
James Shannon, a former congressman from Massachusetts and a Bradley campaign official, also set out on a mission to set reporters straight about Gore, but was turned away from Manchester's West High School by the Secret Service when he tried to enter the building.
''Gore's not going to get away with what he got away with in Iowa,'' declared Shannon.
But Bradley didn't change his own tone, and Gore showed no signs of backing away from his criticism of Bradley's health care plan during a rally at West High. Gore's state chairman, William H. Shaheen, fumed at accusations from the Bradley camp that Gore was misrepresenting Bradley's record and suggested that Bradley's complaints indicate a lack of the kind of personal fortitude a president needs.
''If Bill Bradley can't take criticism on his health care plan, then he doesn't deserve to be president,'' Shaheen said.
Meanwhile, Gore began his effort to bask in the glow of New Hampshire's economy, which has boomed during the Clinton-Gore years. In a takeoff of the question that Bradley posed to Iowa farmers, Gore said, ''The question that ought to be answered in this election is not whether or not we're better off than seven years ago. We know that we are. The question is: can we do even better.''
But Bradley, in his appearances, tried to counter Gore on the economy, touting his own record of leadership on tax, trade, and budget matters. Bradley stressed his work in the Senate to address the budget deficit, create the framework for the GATT pact on international trade, and help establish the North American Free Trade Agreement.
While most candidates tried to control their message of the day, McCain continued his long pattern of taking any and all questions from the voters.
At a town hall meeting in Hillsborough, Pamela Veenstra, 51, said she was one such undecided voter, leaning toward McCain but concerned that three Supreme Court justices the next president will appoint could take away abortion rights.
''I care about life and the life of all women who might get pregnant in a situation that's very, very bad for them,'' she said.
McCain ultimately won her vote, saying he would not impose a litmus test - for any issue, including abortion - on Supreme Court nominees.
Earlier in the day, McCain, who is antiabortion, said, if elected, he would seek to change the Republican Party platform to make exceptions to terminate pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, and when a mother's life is in danger. Bush has said he does not want to change the plank.
Yesterday, Bush continued to follow the Gore campaign playbook as he stole McCain's lines the way Gore often takes Bradley's.
During an interview with Larry King on CNN, Bush said people should devote themselves to ''causes greater than their own self interest,'' a theme in McCain's best-selling book ''Faith of My Fathers,'' and a phrase he constantly utters on the stump.
Of all the candidates, Forbes most noticeably altered his message as he moved from socially conservative Iowa voters to more moderate New Englanders. Among Iowans, Forbes emphasized positions like his opposition to abortion and assisted suicide. But here the millionaire publisher intends to hammer his chief rivals on the issue of taxes.
Calling the tax code ''an abomination,'' Forbes has proposed a 17 percent flat tax and the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service.
Yesterday he ridiculed Bush and McCain's tax plans as too modest.
Forbes told workers that Bush and McCain ''propose the same old, same old - keeping the code, keeping the IRS as it is, giving you little tax cuts phased in five years or eight years down the road, making you go through hoops and loops.''
The following Globe reporters, traveling with the candidates, contributed to this report: Bob Hohler, Anne E. Kornblut, Ann Scales, Michael Crowley, and Tina Cassidy.
