Observers also say Buchanan's lack of strong support in the region will manifest itself in the returns.

"I can't imagine that Buchanan would do terribly well," says Pat Longo, vice chair of the Connecticut Republican Party. "We are an export state."

Despite the rumors of Weld's interest in a regional contest, the New England secretaries of state are presenting the Yankee Primary as a joint project of their own design.

Their intention, they say, is to increase the importance of the region in the presidential race and to encourage the candidates to address regions-pecific issues.

"It made sense to regionalize," McCarthy says. "A lot of issues were the same, and we could have the candidates talk about what we were interested in."

In Maine, which consistently has the highest voter turnout rate of any state, officials hope the regional primary will give the state and the area a higher profile.

Effects of Regionalization

So far, Diamond says, the new primary structure has lived up to its billing and brought more exposure to his state.

"We've seen considerably more campaigning this year," Diamond says.

Although it will not be known until after the election whether candidates spent more on advertising in the region for this year's primaries than in the past, Longo says campaigning this year has been much more active than normal.

Since last weekend, Dole, Alexander and Forbes have each visited the Constitution State, Longo says.

"It's all about clout," he says. "Connecticut is now a pretty serious block."

In Massachusetts, the media blitz normally associated with last month's New Hampshire primary was larger than normal, a change McCarthy attributes to the new regional primary.

"While they were up in New Hampshire they saturated the Massachusetts market more than usual," McCarthy says.

The Yankee Primary's success in terms of forcing candidates to address New England's particular economic concerns is still under debate, but officials say the move has been at least partially successful in that respect.