Gore, Bradley in N.H. Dead Heat

Bill Bradley is in a statistical dead heat with Vice President Al Gore in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in the key primary state of New Hampshire, a poll released Sunday by the Boston Globe and CBS Station WBZ-TV found.

"The Democratic primary race really appears to be a race that could go either way," Gerry Chervinsky, president of KRC Communications, which conducted the survey of 800 likely voters, told the Globe.

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Gore earlier this summer illustrated his commitment to the New England environment.

Other recent surveys showed Gore with a larger, albeit shrinking, lead over his only Democratic challenger for the party's presidential nomination.

The poll in New Hampshire, which hosts the nation's first presidential primary, found Gore's stalwart support of President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and worries over Gore's role in controversial 1996 Democratic campaign fund-raising efforts have eroded his support, the Globe said.

While 65 percent of likely Democratic voters viewed Gore favorably, 19 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of independents who said they expected to vote in the Democratic primary viewed the vice president unfavorably, the poll found.

Bradley, on the other hand, enjoyed a favorability rating of 66 percent among Democrats, with just 11 percent of party voters viewing him unfavorably and no Independent voters rating him unfavorable, the survey showed.

The poll found that while Democratic voters generally believed that the nation was headed in the right direction, only 21 percent said they wanted to keep current government officials, while 39 percent said it was time for a change, the Globe said.

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Republican frontrunner George W. Bush

Among Republican candidates, Bush was supported by 44 percent of likely voters surveyed, compared with Dole at 14 percent and McCain with 12 percent.

Publisher Steve Forbes was in fourth place in the poll, with 7 percent, while conservative commentator Pat Buchanan and former Vice President Dan Quayle each had 4 percent, and conservative activist Gary Bauer had 3 percent, the Globe said.

The newspaper said it inadvertently omitted the name of Alan Keyes from the list of candidates read to respondents.