EVERETT, Wash. -- With the presidential campaign down to its final 15 days and most big battleground states still too close to call, Democrat Al Gore is spending valuable time on the road this week trying to nail down smaller states that should have been tucked safely into his pocket by now.
Of the 10 states that have voted Democratic in the past three elections, opinion polls show Gore safely ahead in only four: New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Massachusetts.
In the remaining six -- Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and West Virginia -- Gore is either behind Republican nominee George W. Bush or ahead by only 2 to 5 percentage points.
Without those six states' combined 51 electoral votes, Gore would find it hard to amass the 270 needed to win in an election that is expected to be close. He is revisiting those states and emphasizing traditional Democratic positions, especially environmental protection in the Northwest.
At the same time, Gore hasn't closed the sale in his home state of Tennessee, where he and Bush are running neck and neck. The same is true in President Clinton's home state of Arkansas and the traditional Democratic stronghold of Louisiana.
So at a time when the vice president could be campaigning in tossup states with big electoral-vote counts -- Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey -- Gore finds himself on the B circuit trying to firm up a spongy base.
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