NATIONAL DESK

THE 2004 CAMPAIGN: ON THE TRAIL; Bush and Kerry, in the Northwest, Again Cross Paths

By JODI WILGOREN and CARL HULSE; Thomas Crampton contributed reporting from Flint, Mich., for this article. (NYT) 1255 words

While Mr. Bush wielded the power of incumbency with a promise to ask Congress for $15 million to begin a long-sought deepening of 104 miles of the Columbia River, Mr. Kerry culminated his 15-day, 4,971.12-mile cross-country trek on the banks of the Willamette with a crowd that the fire marshal estimated at 40,000. Local television stations split their screens as the two men, mindful of the mass of independent voters here, each made stops in hostile territory in swings through this swing state.

''Over the last four years, the burden of taxes has shifted from the wealthy to the middle class,'' Mr. Kerry said of the report released Friday by the Congressional Budget Office, careful to call it independent and not belonging to Democrats or Republicans. ''That is wrong, that is morally wrong, and it's wrong from a policy point of view in America, and we have to change it.''

He used hotter language in a written statement, saying, ''This is the straw that will break back of middle-class families,'' and adding that Mr. Bush was ''deliberately stacking the deck against them.''

Mr. Bush did not directly address the report, which found that one-third of the tax cuts over the last three years had benefited those with incomes in the top 1 percent, whose households received an average cut of $78,460, compared with $1,090 for those in the middle 20 percent. But he insisted that Mr. Kerry's proposal to rescind the tax breaks that went to the wealthy would hurt the average worker and stall the economy.

''We are not going to let him wreck that economy by running up our taxes,'' Mr. Bush told a packed high-school gym packed in suburban Beaverton, Ore.

His aides dismissed the budget office report as biased because it was framed by the Democrats who requested it. Scott McCellan, the White House press secretary, said that ''the largest percentage reductions are going to those in the middle and lower-income tax brackets,'' while Steve Schmidt, the campaign spokesman, said he was ''delighted to have a tax argument'' with Mr. Kerry.

''The president has lowered taxes for every American,'' Mr. Schmidt said. ''John Kerry has voted to increase taxes 98 times, and he voted against tax cuts 126 times.''

Mr. Kerry and his running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, both responded directly for the first time to Vice President Dick Cheney's harsh words the day before about Mr. Kerry's promise to wage a ''more sensitive'' war on terror.

After a questioner in Springfield, Ore., said he was wary of using the word ''sensitive because Bush has screwed that word up,'' Mr. Kerry said, ''I don't think it's very sensitive to have a vice president who has secret meetings with polluters,'' adding, ''I don't think it's very sensitive, except to the wealthy, to shift the tax burden to the average American.''

At the same time, Mr. Edwards told supporters in Flint, Mich., that Mr. Cheney had ''picked one word out of a long discussion'' and ''distorted it and tried to use it to argue that Senator Kerry will not keep the American people safe'' in an effort to distract attention from the economy.

''He's talking about a man who is carrying shrapnel in his body today,'' Mr. Edwards said, referring to Mr. Kerry's war wounds. ''He is talking about a man who spilled his blood for the United States of America.''

The criss-crossing campaign events here, which brought Air Force One to the same airport where Mr. Kerry's red, white and blue Boeing 757 was parked, was the second time in 10 days the two men have fought for attention in the same town, and capped a week of political leapfrog in which each has visited the battlegrounds of Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Each side denied that it was the copycat, but the parallel schedules confirmed that this close election is being fought in a limited number of states.

At a fund-raiser with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday night, Mr. Bush said that he intended to add California to the states in contention, despite polls showing a Democratic advantage. ''Nobody should take this state for granted in 2004,'' he said.

Here in Portland and later Friday afternoon in Seattle -- two liberal cities with strong antiwar movements, Mr. Bush made parochial appeals, with the river-dredging and by saying, after a tour of a Boeing plant, that he would push hard to end the European subsidies for Airbus.

''I've instructed the U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick to inform European officials in his September meeting that we think these subsidies are unfair and he should pursue all options to end these subsidies, including bringing a W.T.O. case if need be,'' Mr. Bush said.

Earlier, at an industrial park on the Columbia here, he promised, ''What I'm telling you is we're committed to keeping the Columbia River open for navigation and trade, and we're committed to keeping America's great ports open for business.''

But Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, denounced the project as ''an expensive scheme to buy votes in a battleground state.''

The visit to the Pacific Northwest contrasted with Mr. Bush's trip earlier this week through the conservative Florida Panhandle, where thousands of fans lined the highway to glimpse the president's entourage. Here, the small clusters gathered to wave as the president passed included protesters as well.

Mr. Kerry also faced critics at his morning event Friday in Springfield -- one held a sign asking whether he had ''waffles'' for breakfast -- but he reached beyond his base by stopping Thursday night in the Republican-leaning southwestern corner of the state, where 10,000 people filled the Jackson County fairgrounds.

For Mr. Kerry, the Portland rally was the final stop on his post-convention swing through 17 states -- Mr. Edwards hit another five on his own -- using 43 buses, a train, seven helicopters, three planes and a ferry. His campaign said he had seen 300,000 people over two weeks.

Flying here Thursday night, he was delighted to discover local news coverage comparing his open-to-the-public rally with Mr. Bush's invitation-only event, and his aides made a show on Friday of reports that people were told they had to volunteer for Mr. Bush's campaign to get in.

Scott Stanzel, a Bush spokesman, said logistics prevented the president from having wide-open doors.

''It is important for us to make sure that the people who are working hard on behalf of this campaign have an opportunity to see the president and hear what he has to say,'' he said. While Mr. Kerry's rally here was unticketed, at his earlier event, on a quiet cul-de-sac in Springfield, the line of people holding invitations was filled with campaign volunteers, while neighbors watched from across the street.

''I don't know how you go about being invited,'' sighed Karen McEldowney-Hay, 56, an undecided Democrat who was stuck behind the cordon. ''I just was going to watch and see if I could get a glimpse of him.''

CAPTIONS: Photos: Senator John Kerry, above, in Portland, Ore., ended a 15-day campaign swing yesterday, while President Bush also campaigned in Portland. (Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times); (Photo by Ting-Li Wang/The New York Times)