ONCORD, N.H. - If Orrin G. Hatch had a million dollars for every time he asked voters for money yesterday, he would, well, still be far behind Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush.
Nonetheless, undeterred by the monumental game of campaign catchup, Hatch, the conservative senator from Utah with just $700,000 in commitments, paid his first visit to this state since announcing July 1 that he would join the dozen or so candidates already running for president.
His nine-hour day spent in Manchester and Concord consisted of explaining why he is running (''I'm the most qualified''); why he got in the race late (''It took me a long time to decide''); and why he thinks he can beat Texas Governor Bush, who has a $36 million campaign war chest and is way ahead in the polls.
''I'm really tired of having the establishment dictate who we're going to have for president,'' Hatch told Delta Dental employees in the company cafeteria, where he asked for donations several times.
But Hatch, whom the National Rifle Association twice named its Man of the Year, took aim not only at Bush, but at the Democratic candidates, Vice President Al Gore and former senator Bill Bradley. He said that they all come from wealthy families, which he does not, and that Bush has the least experience of the lead contenders, having been governor for only five years.
''If there's one thing that separates me from the three top candidates, it's theirs was a life of privilege and mine was one of poverty,'' the 65-year-old grandfather of 18 said.
However, Hatch went on to become a lawyer. And 23 years ago, he ran successfully to become a Republican senator from Utah despite filing his campaign papers for that race in the last minute of the last day of the deadline. ''Nobody gave me a chance to win,'' he recalled.
Although he said he has been asked to run for president many times before, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee said he is taking the plunge this time because the stakes are high.
He said President Clinton's successor could have the chance to appoint three Supreme Court justices, something that could dramatically alter the nation's legal, social, and political landscape. He warned that if a Democrat wins, the composition of the court could be in jeopardy.
''We'd never get our country back,'' he said.
But Hatch declined to answer when asked if he would hold Supreme Court candidates to a litmus test on certain issues, including abortion, of which he is an outspoken critic. All he would say is that his choices would ''represent everyone in America.''
Hatch also made apparent yesterday the central role religion has in his life.
A member in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he told voters throughout the day that the next president needs to ''restore morality to the White House'' just about as much as foreign policy needs to be improved, which is quite a bit, according to him.
He said he asked New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith to pray over his reported decision to leave the Republican Party.
And at a tour of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Children's Center in Concord, he told a boy named Joshua that he had a ''really important name. You have to live right.''
But this was also Hatch, sweltering in the sun while wearing a 12-year-old dark pinstripe suit, trying to show he is not as rigid as he is sometimes portrayed. ''Al Gore has given the word stiff new meaning,'' he said with a laugh.
However, David Carney, a Republican political consultant, is not amused, calling Hatch's last minute candidacy ''an afront'' to the New Hampshire primary system.
''Only somebody from Washington, D.C., could think that with a few months to go, no money, no name recognition, no distinct ideas or message, that they could walk into the New Hampshire primary and win without an effort,'' Carney said.
