And however much the recommendations were a product of a bipartisan consensus within the commission, they landed in the highly charged partisan atmosphere of a tight presidential campaign.

In a tight presidential campaign, little things matter a lot.

Dahlkemper became used to tight campaigns in her short political career.

For much of the remainder of this exceedingly tight campaign, Mr. Gore is likely to keep breakneck schedules like today's, his strategists said.

This district has been nicknamed the "Bloody Eighth" because of a series of hard-fought tight campaigns and political reversals.

In effect, she casts two votes: one expressing her political principles, the other making a practical choice in a tight campaign.

Several Bush advisers said they would run a tighter campaign here than in New Hampshire.

"I've never seen so many reformers in my life," said Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, a nonpartisan group advocating tighter campaign finance laws.

But Mr. Dole's campaign kept the advertisement rather than risk the political embarrassment of withdrawing it in the midst of a tight campaign.

After a tight, hard-fought campaign this year, Mr. Packwood, a Republican, was returned to the Senate for a fifth term.