Gore pulls even with Bush in two national polls

WASHINGTON -- Al Gore campaigned about the nation's prosperity for the last month as the Democratic National Committee flooded key states with millions of dollars in advertising. This week, Gore got a hint the intensive effort may have helped, with two new national polls showing the presidential race is even.

Two polls released Monday suggested that Gore has closed the gap with Texas Gov. George W. Bush after trailing in the majority of polls taken over the past couple of months. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll had Bush at 48 percent, Gore at 46 percent among likely voters. A four-way matchup also showed the race very close. Earlier this month, Bush led Gore 50 percent to 41 percent in that poll, but Gore has moved ahead among women voters and pulled even among independents.

A CBS News poll showed the race equally close among registered voters, 43 percent for Bush and 41 percent for Gore. In May, Bush was at 47 percent and Gore at 39 percent. Both polls of about 600 were taken over the weekend and had error margins of 4 percentage points.

The two latest polls were not a cause of great concern for Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, who said the average of recent public polls still has the Republican up by 6 points, where he's been since spring. ''That's why we look at the trend and it remains solid.''

Senior Gore adviser Tad Devine said the public polls are starting to reflect what the Gore campaign's polls have been showing recently.