McCain, Bush Ready For SC Duel

Saturday, February 19th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

South Carolina-AP..One nerve center had the rowdy, horn-honking air of a ragtag ensemble that hopes its road show pulls off a Saturday night hit. The other was filled with the reserved, efficient hum of a well-oiled machine moving with a muscular but wary confidence.

In the final hours before Saturday's Republican presidential primary, the differences in the main headquarters for John McCain and George W. Bush seemed to reflect the mood of the candidates themselves - both of whom spent Friday crisscrossing the state and promising victory.

"It's nuts," said Jennifer Warren, 21, a University of South Carolina student manning the phones in the cluttered, noisy, crowded McCain headquarters in downtown Columbia. "We're very excited, very anxious."

A few blocks away in a stately brick building, volunteer Lorraine Keavany, 41, was taking a break at the more reserved Bush headquarters.

"Everybody is working very, very hard. It's contagious," she said in a serious tone.

Her candidate also picked up on the extra urgency in the race. Recent polls gave Mr. Bush a slight lead in the contest, which is open to Democrats, Republicans and independents.

"There is an intensity level that seems different to me," Mr. Bush said during one of his stops Friday. "I'm going to win tomorrow. I believe I am."

Mr. McCain, at a packed gym at the College of Charleston, expressed the same confidence.

"Once we win tomorrow in South Carolina, nobody's going to stop us, my friends, nobody's going to stop us," he told a crowd in the parking lot of the NASCAR Cafe in Myrtle Beach.

The Arizona senator spent the day preaching his standard message, that he is an outsider moving against the entrenched GOP establishment. Mr. McCain has built a following among some independent voters, and he seemed intent on attracting more of them.

"Come back, Reagan Democrats," he said at the Sun City retirement community near Hilton Head. "Help us rule, help us inspire these young Americans, help us make a better America."

Playing down polls McCain backers played down the new surveys.

"Don't buy stock in that," said Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has traveled the state with Mr. McCain. "All the polling we've seen is in the margin of error."

In Washington, Bill McInturff, Mr. McCain's pollster, said the latest findings "are all over the map. . . . I have no clue anymore."

He said that with a South Carolina victory, Mr. McCain would take the next big test Tuesday in Michigan by 6 to 9 points.

If we lose narrowly, Michigan is too close to call," he said. "And if we have a very bad night in South Carolina, we're not going to do well in Michigan."

The day had its ugly moments for Mr. McCain. Campaign aides confronted a man in Sun City who was handing out literature regarding the senator's wife, Cindy, and her one-time addiction to prescription drugs. Someone dumped manure on the street outside a gym where Mr. McCain was speaking. And James Dobson, president of the Christian group Focus on the Family, issued a statement criticizing Mr. McCain's divorce from his first wife, his involvement in the Keating Five savings and loan scandal and his fiery temper.

But none of that could spoil the mood at the McCain headquarters. Workers there said they were handling 11th-hour calls from people wanting to know the senator's stance on a variety of issues - from his assessment of President Clinton to his views on abortion.

"We're getting a lot of last-minute calls and visits," said Dwight Clark, 25, a computer worker who moved to South Carolina from New York a month ago to volunteer for Mr. McCain. "I was here when he was 20 points down in the polls. The excitement was great then, and it's still the same."

At Bush headquarters, Jimmy Gunn of Goat Island, S.C., was telling visitors that Mr. Bush was stronger on veterans issues than Mr. McCain, a former prison of war in Vietnam. And, echoing his candidate's sentiments, he said Mr. Bush had stopped Mr. McCain's runaway momentum.

"I think we've turned it around in the last five days. We were on the defensive there for a while," said Mr. Gunn, a former small-town newspaper publisher. "When Governor Bush started fighting back, it took about a week for it to take effect."

State GOP leaders predicted that Saturday's turnout will be a record, far surpassing the high of 276,000 set in 1996. Partly to mostly cloudy skies are forecast with temperatures in the 70s.

"It's the most excitement and intensity I've ever seen in a South Carolina election," said Henry McMaster, the state GOP chairman. "Any minute I expect a B-52 to fly over and drop leaflets for one of the candidates. That's the only thing that hasn't been tried yet."

Fierce campaigning Mr. Bush began a whirlwind swing of rallies through the heavily Republican western edge of the state, starting with a rally in Clinton, S.C.

Asked whether his campaign will continue if he loses in South Carolina, he retorted, "Yes, the campaign goes on when we win."

He also said a victory in South Carolina would quell doubts about his candidacy amid defections by some supporters and fears that more will jump ship if he loses.

Mr. Bush said he was learning "who my friends are" and would take note of "people who are playing their cards a little early." "If there are some people getting weak-kneed, we need to know who they are in the heat of battle," he told ABC.

In addition to rallying the so-called Republican establishment in the state, Mr. Bush has sought the backing of religious conservatives, who could account for more than one-third of the vote, and the state's 373,000 veterans, who have been heavily courted by Mr. McCain.

"I'm not conceding the veterans vote," Mr. Bush said.

Mr. Bush made his rounds with U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Dallas, like Mr. McCain a former Vietnam POW.

I happened to be with McCain for the last year and a half in the prison camp over in Vietnam. So I know him pretty well, and I know him pretty well from the Congress, too," Mr. Johnson told the rally at Clinton.

"And I can tell you he cannot hold a candle to George Bush," said Mr. Johnson, touting the governor's "honesty and integrity."

Meanwhile, the foot soldiers in the Bush and McCain armies seemed weary and anxious about the outcome - looking for a victory and a little peace and quiet from all the political hoopla.

"The phone lines are a little crazy today," apologized volunteer Irby Schultz, a homemaker from Columbia, as she turned away from one visitor to the Bush headquarters.