"You have the power to overrule the special interests if you will exercise that power," he said at an enthusiastic rally to more than a thousand people packed into a stuffy high school gymnasium here tonight.

And when Vice President Bush campaigned here recently, perhaps his most enthusiastic rally was on the predominantly Eastern European, working-class, heavily unionized Southeast Side, once a Democratic stronghold.

Dozens of those Democratic candidates were on stage at an enthusiastic rally for them one morning.

Senator John Kerry, campaigning in bedrock Republican territory in Ohio, led an enthusiastic rally.

Mr. Pataki and his patron, Mr. D'Amato, came to the neighborhood hours later, appearing at an enthusiastic rally of more than 1,000 Hasidic Jews on a street corner.

Mr. McCain's main opponents, Gov. George W. Bush and Steve Forbes, also appeared at enthusiastic rallies.

"They thought I was, as they say, whistling into the wind," he told an enthusiastic rally at a New Orleans baseball stadium on Wednesday.

After the Masiello endorsement, the Governor and the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, Mary O. Donohue, flew to Rochester and Binghamton for enthusiastic rallies.

"After seven years of charisma, maybe it's time for some competence in the White House" Mr. Dukakis said at an enthusiastic rally at the University of Wisconsin in Madison today.

Mr. McCain's main opponents, Mr. Bush and Steve Forbes, also appeared at enthusiastic rallies with hundreds of supporters.