Photo finish?

National | Money is important in the presidential contest—but in a race down to the wire, campaign operatives are counting waking hours rather than dollars and cents | Bob Jones

After more than a year and well over $100 million, the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Al Gore headed toward their final week in a statistical dead heat, setting up one of the closest elections in a generation.

On Oct. 25, Mr. Gore edged ahead in some daily tracking polls for the first time since Oct. 9—but every major index still had the race well within the margin of error. That means that despite all the polls and pundits and prognostications, no one can be sure who actually is in the lead just days before America heads to the voting booth.

Not surprisingly, both candidates were working like the 2-point underdogs they might very well be. While Mr. Bush returned repeatedly to must-win states like Florida and Michigan, he unleashed his 29 fellow GOP governors to fire up the troops elsewhere. By cranking up phone banks and get-out-the-vote efforts, their statewide political machines could make the difference in several tight contests.