In New York, the two-term Republican Senator, Alfonse M. D'Amato, has been trying for several days to portray his views as close to those of Mr. Clinton.

He and his colleague Richard Shelby are the state's first two-term Republican Senators since Reconstruction.

"I look forward to starting another career in 1993," the two-term Senator and former Representative said at a news conference at the his family's fruit ranch here, 30 miles west of Boise.

The two-term Senator is known in Albany for her willingness to play the legislative game - literally.

"I've got more calls on this issue than on any other since I've been in office," the two-term Senator said, adding that there was little help available for his constituents.

Though he was careful to praise the former two-term Senator as "one of the bright voices," he also said, "We are seeing a changing of the guard."

In fact, some still feel a strong loyalty to Thomas J. Dodd, a two-term Senator and a politician who cast a wide shadow across the state for several decades.

Although Mr. Bradley, a two-term Democratic Senator, outspent his Republican opponent, Christine Todd Whitman, by 12 to 1, he won the 1990 election by only two percentage points.

One year later, Harrison H. Schmitt, a conservative Republican and former astronaut, unseated the two-term Senator.

The campaign pits a moderate Republican, two-term Senator against a liberal advocate for women's issues who has never held elective office and is riding a national movement.