DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H.--All eyes are on New Hampshire today as voters head to the polls in the nation's first primary, where they will begin selecting the Republican nominee for president of the United States.

After a full year of earnest campaigning, all polls indicate that the field of eight contenders has become a statistical dead heat between Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), political commentator Patrick J. Buchanan and former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander.

As the candidates wrestle to define the soul of the party, voters are presented with a clear choice. As Senate majority leader, Dole, 72, has played a major role in shaping the GOP agenda over the past two years. But he has been attacked by Alexander as "lacking vision" and by Buchanan as too moderate.

"I'm running a campaign of fresh ideas while Senator Dole has no ideas and Pat Buchanan has the wrong ideas," Alexander said at a rally in Exeter yesterday.

Dole has seen his long-held lead steadily erode over the past week. On Sunday, he enlisted the aid of former president candidate Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) to portray himself as a true conservative and the only candidate able to beat President Clinton this November.

"This is about somebody who understands America and what sacrifice is all about," said Dole, a veteran of World War II.

But throughout the final campaign days in the Granite State, Dole downplayed the issues and focused more on his experience in Washington, D.C.

Alexander, on the other hand, used his campaign engagements to outline his stances on education, the environment, gun control, crime and taxes.

Buchanan, in the meantime, focused on Dole. The fiery political commentator tried to use appearances at TimCo Lumber Co. in Barnstead yesterday and in Manchester Friday evening in Manchester to push the party toward his protectionist and socially conservative agenda.

"Ordinary guys in the coffee shop really like what Buchanan says about jobs and values," said the store owner of Mountain's General Store in Barnstead.

Disgust with the tenor of the campaign in Iowa drove many voters toward Alexander, who said he was "sticking to the high road" and remaining above the fray.

"Nobody does anything but sling mud--I really want issues, not fighting," said Janet Boyden, taking a break from a round of bowling in Raymond.

Meanwhile, multimillionaire publisher Malcolm S. "Steve" Forbes Jr. offered no strategy to mediate his free fall in the polls. On this last day, he continued with a cerebral analysis of the flat tax and insisted the policy would "restore honesty" in the nation.

While much of the attention has focused on the front-runners, voters have expressed increasing interest in the second-tier candidates, who have attempted to provide a policy debate that has sometimes been lacking over the past weeks.

At a forum Sunday afternoon, 600 voters plunked down $20 to see Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Calif.), Sen. Richard M. Lugar (R-Ind.), former U.N. ambassador Alan L. Keyes '72 and automotive parts executive Morry Taylor discuss the issues.

Herbert Fitzgerald of Manchester, like many others, said he feels the other candidates added to the debate even if they stood little chance of gaining many votes.

"The guy who made the greatest impression was Alan Keyes," Fitzgerald said. "It's too bad [many voters] say 'I'd like to vote for the guy, but he can't win.'"

Dornan encouraged voters to "vote with their hearts, not with their brains," and told The Crimson that he felt his campaign was successful because it has addressed the issues facing Americans.

Across the state, polls open this morning at 7 a.m.

Alison D. Overholt and Flora Tartakovsky contributed to the reporting of this story.