As he drove from Patrick J. Buchanan's campaign headquarers to a polling site in southeast Manchester yesterday, Conrad D. Zirois took a long puff of his Marlboro cigarette and tuned his car radio to the Rush Limbaugh show.

Zirois, 34, requested a week's leave of absence from his job at a small Connecticut corporation last Thursday to come up to New Hampshire and support the Buchanan campaign.

Like many Buchanan supporters, Zirois is a single white male, a Catholic and a solid member of the middle class.

Although he said "I really can't afford to be doing this," Zirois plunked down several hundred dollars for a rental car (his own Chrysler-LeBaron needed repairs) and a hotel room in order to help Buchanan in his bid to redefine the face of Conservatism and shape the future of the Rpeublican party.

"This is a historic moment in the party's history," Zirois said. "Pat's trying to rebuild the Reagan Coalition--it's an extension of what happened in 1994" when conservative Republicans captured both branches of Congress for the first time since 1947, he said.

Like hundreds of other volunteers, Zirois has spent 12 hours daily on such tasks as manning phone banks, distributing leaflets and attending rallies.

The intensity of Buchanan's following was evident yesterday as dozens of volunteers held signs along Elm Street in downtown Manchester and placed yard signs on every street corner.

Throughout the campaign, Buchanan has appealed to working class Americans who respond to his promises that economic protectionism will help keep decent jobs in America and help the nation's economy grow.

"If every factory here closes down, we won't have to worry about free trade," Zirois said.

But the religious following Buchanan has attracted has stemmed from Buchanan's discussion of social issues such as abortion, school prayer and gay rights, according to Zirois.

"Buchanan is the only one who recognizes that morals and values are the glue to our society," Zirois said. "He's hitting all the right buttons, releasing all our pent-up frustrations."

Buchanan's fiery rhetoric and sharply conservative views, however, have drawn fire from Republican party leaders who have warned that Buchanan will divide the party and frighten moderate voters.

At a press conference yesterday morning, former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.) urged New Hampshire voters to support U.S. Sen. Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), adding that he will vote for President Clinton next November if Buchanan captures his party's nomination.

But Zirois said such criticism by party leaders will only result in a backlash from the large number of Buchanan backers who comprise the party itself.

"The people make the party. The leaders' job is to follow our wishes," he said. "That's why we have primaries in the first place."