Sept. 24, 2002 -- The two main candidates in the neck-and-neck race to fill outgoing Republican Sen. Phil Gramm's Senate seat are each fighting hard to maintain a moderate image while portraying their opponent as a narrow-minded partisan.

Texas Attorney General John Cornyn has lashed his campaign's hopes firmly to George W. Bush's popularity in his home state. Cornyn claims to be a Bush-style, "compassionate" conservative and says his opponent, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, inhabits land far to the left of most Texas voters. "The Republicans make a point of highlighting Kirk's many out-of-state visits and suggesting that he's more in touch with Hollywood or New York than with Texas," Gary Susswein of the Austin American Statesman wrote in late September.

The strategy has provided Cornyn a slim lead, despite the Kirk campaign's argument that the former mayor enjoys broad popularity in Dallas, is backed by the business community, and is even supported by some Republicans.

Kirk has supported the president's education initiatives and has said he supports the war effort. Cornyn's campaign has sought to highlight areas of disagreement between Kirk and the president, however, pointing out that the former mayor opposed Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen's nomination to the federal bench and is non-committal on whether the Bush tax cut should be made permanent.

When Kirk commented on the notion of powerful politicians sending the sons of poor minorities to war, Cornyn's camp sharply criticized him, and Kirk later said he regretted the statement and reiterated his strong support for the administration's foreign policy.

For Kirk's part he says that his record as mayor of Dallas is one of conciliation and cooperation, and proof that the well being of the city trumped partisanship. He also points to his ties with the business community and his experience working for former Senator and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, which he says gave him insight into the workings of Congress -- especially the appropriations process.

Kirk's camp, after assuming a defensive stance for much of the campaign, has recently criticized Cornyn for having accepted donations from scandal-ridden corporate giant WorldCom and for canceling a fundraiser that was to be hosted by one of the firm's top executives.

Both candidates have staked out plots in the middle of the political landscape, but Cornyn's focus on associating himself with the president seems to be giving him the advantage he wants entering the last weeks of the campaign.