DURHAM, N.H--As the Republican and Democratic candidates begin their last push to mobilize voters before Feb. 1's New Hampshire primaries, college-going political activists have taken center stage.

Nearly every major candidate will attend a giant political convention for high school and college students this weekend in Manchester, NH--despite obligations to campaign elsewhere in both New Hampshire and Iowa, where the state's nominating caucus will be held Jan. 24.

All of the candidates have been boasting of their support among the young voters, though two Republicans, Steve Forbes and John McCain, have been particularly vocal about the extent of their college operations in their campaigns. The Republicans have more at stake in attracting young volunteers, campaign officials said.

The Forbes campaign regularly pays for busloads of transplanted Massachusetts students to canvas the state. At most of the debates and town hall forums, Forbes' young voters are the most visible--resplendent in orange vests, moshing to heavy metal music. It all seems decidedly un-Forbesian.

Keith Appell, a Forbes campaign aide, insists that the candidate's message is responsible for the visible outpouring of support, not the plush mega-bus and free jackets.

"Steve's message encompasses all types of people," Appell said. "He's the only candidate talking about the future."

Still, the volunteers themselves seem shy about admitting to the nobler purpose. After a December debate in Manchester, one youthful Forbes supporter with spiked hair avowed, "I'm here for the free ride."

In the next few weeks, Forbes's campaign will pay for volunteers to distribute literature on doorsteps across the state.

Forbes is currently running third in the New Hampshire polls, just ahead of Alan L. Keyes '72, and a bit behind McCain. For the so-called "third-tier candidates," the next few weeks are make-or-break. Poor showings in New Hampshire will likely narrow the Republican field.

Several of these campaigns are focusing on young voters to help mobilize other voters.

The challenge that Keyes and others face was evident Sunday night, at a gala dinner for the state's top fundraisers and volunteers. All six Republican candidates--George W. Bush, Gary L. Bauer, McCain, Forbes, Keyes and Orrin Hatch--were given 10 minutes to speak.

Forbes went first, giving a slightly modified version of his standard stump speech. Then came McCain, who tried to make news by lambasting Sen. Bill Bradley and Vice President Al Gore '69 for their views on the gays in the military policy. After George W. Bush finished speaking, his handlers made a strategic decision. They decided to leave, right then and there, for the campaign hotel, about 25 minutes away in Manchester.

The result: 50 members of Bush's traveling press corps--about half of the assembled press--trudged up the stairways while Keyes began to talk about America's "moral obligation."

Keyes aides acknowledged the problem.

"It's hard to avoid their tunnel-vision," said William Webber, Keyes's New Hampshire state chair.

The campaign will try to grab the attention of state voters with its first television ad campaign. At Sunday's event, campaign staffers set up a camera behind a table of youthful Keyes supporters. They turned on a Klieg light when their candidate stepped to the podium. At the same moment, the Keyes supporters stood up, waved their large signs, and cheered loudly, creating the effect of an audience-wide accolade.

Later in the evening, the campaign set up the camera outside the door to the stadium, soliciting "spontaneous" commentary of the event from young-looking Republicans who passed by.

Webber said that young Keyes supporters will help distribute more than 50,000 pamphlets in the weeks ahead. Many of the supporters are recruits from small area colleges, where Keyes always proves a big draw.

The Bush campaign will do much of the same--but in grander style. They're renting an airline hangar and filling it with cots, hoping to lure young volunteers up to New Hampshire in the final days of the primary.

"We have got a big youth organization," said Mindy Tucker, Bush's press secretary.

Things are a bit less complicated for the Democrats in the state. Though the latest statewide polls give Bradley a five point margin of victory, a likely Gore win in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 24 will bring him up in the polls come the first of February, political analysts believe. With the exception of fringe candidates like Lyndon H. LaRouche, Bradley and Gore are directly competing.

The Harvard Push

Harvard Republicans who support Bush will spend the next two weekends in the state going from door to door. About a dozen have volunteered to spend their entire intersession with the campaign.

Harvard's McCain supporters have similar events planned--and will participate in a "community service day" on Jan. 22, when they'll all volunteer at local soup kitchens and senior citizens homes.

Campus Democrats also plan to stay busy, though more than 100 have already traveled up North.

Students supporting Al Gore will join comedian Al S. Franken '73 and actor Sean Penn in knocking on doors during intersession.

According to Luke P. McLoughlin '00, who organizes Harvard's Bradley supporters, about 20 students will spend the intersession in New Hampshire.

Those students will spend 18-hour days working phone banks, visiting prospective voters, and helping to drive members of Bradley's press corps.

Will all these efforts pay off? Most residents tell pollsters they are very well-informed about the state of the campaign. A lot have already made up their minds, some tepidly.

Mike Connally, 24, said he is a reluctant backer of Bush. He said he won't vote for other, more conservative candidates like Gary Bauer because "they can't win." And he certainly won't support McCain because "he's too liberal."

Bill Kerrigan, an independent who has voted for Democrats in the past, said he, too, has decided to vote for Bush. "I like his track record in Texas," he said. In New Hampshire, registered independents can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.

There is some solace for New Hampshire voters seeking excitement, for their tiny state basks in the national spotlight as the primary approaches.

New Hampshire feels "a sense of controlled chaos," said Jonathan C. Gruber '02, a Bradley supporter. Come election day it will be "complete pandemonium," he said.