3 GOP RIVALS VIE FOR 1ST IN N.H.; STINGING ADS FLY.

Byline: Michael Kranish The Boston Globe

The New Hampshire primary entered an intense four-day endgame as the latest Boston Globe tracking poll showed a fierce three-way fight for the top spot, with Lamar Alexander continuing his rise and Patrick Buchanan remaining in a statistical tie with Sen. Bob Dole for first place.

While the candidates all claimed to have heard the message that voters are turned off by negative campaigning, it was hard to tell by watching television. Dole, trying to prevent a repeat of his previous two losses here, led the assault by saturating the airwaves with a last-minute round of ads that featured Gov. Stephen Merrill attacking Buchanan and Alexander. Within hours, Buchanan and Alexander put up their own new ads slamming Dole.

Buchanan, trying to keep his momentum, remained on the defensive for much of the day Friday as he continued to face questions about whether his campaign co-chairman associated with white supremacists. On Thursday night, however, he was strongly supported at a "God and Country" rally with Christian Coalition members, many of whom hope to bring a Buchanan victory.

The two other main competitors, Alexander and Steve Forbes, spent Friday battling each other for the vote of independents, who make up one-third of the electorate and could decide the outcome of the GOP primary.

Dole, still smarting from the constant attack on him in Thursday's candidate debate, said in Portsmouth, "I am going to put in for another Purple Heart."

Dole seemed sensitive to criticism that he was shoveling negative ads on the airwaves and complained about Forbes, who recently stopped running negative ads after the strategy backfired in Iowa.

"Mr. Forbes kind of reminds me of the guy who shot his parents and pleaded for mercy because he's an orphan," Dole said. "He spent $20 million on negative ads trying to destroy me and he came very close."

Dole continued to rely on the popular governor, Merrill, to take on top rivals. Two weeks after Merrill attacked Forbes' flat tax proposal in an ad, the governor Friday took on Buchanan and Alexander.

"Pat Buchanan's own statements make him unelectable," Merrill says in the ad. "And Lamar Alexander's tax-and-spend record is too liberal for New Hampshire. Bob Dole's the only candidate who's stood up to Bill Clinton and won. Bob Dole's conservative leadership is right for New Hampshire taxpayers."

A tracking poll conducted by KRC Communications for The Boston Globe and WBZ-TV showed Dole at 25 percent and Buchanan at 22 percent, with a 5 percent margin of error. The most significant gain was scored by Alexander, who got 18 percent, a four-point rise in two days. Forbes scored 13 percent. Sen. Richard Lugar held 5 percent; Alan Keyes, 4 percent; and Rep. Robert Dornan of California, 1 percent.

The Globe poll found that Thursday's debate did not make much impact on the race. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said the debate did not make them more likely to vote for any candidate, and 57 percent said it did not make them less likely to vote for a particular candidate.

With so much volatility in the race and nearly one-fifth of the electorate still undecided, the candidates fanned out across southern and central New Hampshire to make their case.

But, as ever, the campaign was waged on the airwaves. CNN said a consultant determined that despite all the focus on spending by the wealthy Forbes, Dole led the ad assault, airing 1,097 commercials in the two weeks ending Wednesday. Forbes was second with 798 and Buchanan third with 342.

Forbes, however, is making up for lost air time by buying ads in half-hour segments.

Buchanan, in a round of television and radio interviews, preached his economic gospel but spent much of the time fending off Dole's charge that he is "too extreme" and answering questions about campaign co-chairman Larry Pratt. Pratt took a leave of absence after it was reported that he participated in meetings of militia leaders and white supremacists.

"This is a distraction," Buchanan said in one radio interview. "It is the last recourse of empty minds to a campaign that is soaring."

Buchanan said Dole's ads take extreme-sounding excerpts from essays Buchanan has written and display them out of context. He taunted Dole, saying the senator "feels that for the third time he is going down and it's not a pretty sight," a reference to Dole's previous New Hampshire primary loses, most recently in 1988.

"The man does not have vision," Buchanan said. "This slew of attack ads cannot substitute for a vision for America."

Buchanan said he planned negative ads of his own to counter Dole. One of the lines he said he was considering using was, "I may have to eat my words, but at least I don't have to eat his record."

But Buchanan was clearly feeling the jabs of Dole's efforts to paint him as an extremist. He said one passage he wrote asserting that women were not equipped to succeed professionally "could have been better phrased."

Buchanan released two ads Friday in response to Dole. A radio ad says women have worked for Buchanan, including his sister Bay as campaign manager. A TV ad accuses his rivals of raising taxes.