Congressional race in Silicon Valley tightens

And both camps plan to feverishly work the phone banks on Election Day because all agree, the battle for votes will be a bitter one until the very end.

"A lot will depend on what happens these last few days, and voter turnout is key," said Terry Christensen, chair of the political science department at San Jose State University.

The race between the two state assemblymen to succeed Rep. Tom Campbell, who is running for Senate, is widely viewed as one of the most critical and tightest in the nation. The outcome could help swing the balance of power in the House of Representatives.

The high political stakes have drawn an unprecedented number of political heavyweights to the district to campaign for Cunneen and Honda.

Clinton's visit to San Jose on Friday - part of an 11th-hour San Francisco Bay Area Democratic campaigning spree - is aimed to draw voter interest.

"No one can create as much free publicity as President Clinton," said Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser of the Democratic Party of California.

Democrats hope Clinton - who easily carried the district in 1992 and 1996 - will help boost voter turnout in a region that tilts Democratic 44-to-35 percent in registration. But the Democrats are also well aware of the district's moodiness.

The district stretches from the Santa Cruz Mountains - where hippies and high-tech workers and executives live under redwood forests - to the southern portion of booming Silicon Valley, where million-dollar track homes and condominium complexes sprawl between office parks.

Voters in the district tend to split tickets, favoring Democrats and moderate Republicans like Campbell, who won three easy elections. Before Campbell, Democrat Norm Mineta, now the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, held the seat for two decades.

An independent poll conducted for Reuters by John Zogby International on Oct. 27 showed Honda with an 11-point lead over Cunneen, with 8 percent responding as undecided. The results were based on interviews with 350 likely voters and the margin of error was plus or minus 5.3 percent. Previous polls conducted for the campaigns showed their respective candidates with slight leads or in a statistical tie. In an Oct. 11 internal poll of 400 likely voters, which was conducted for Honda's campaign, 22 percent of the respondents were undecided.

Each campaign proclaims their candidate has the edge but each side acknowledges that the battle will be down to the wire.

"I think the shoelace was tied in the primary, and with the voter registration, we got the boots on, but nobody is going to give up fighting for that district until closing time at 8 o'clock Tuesday," said the Democratic Party's Mulholland. Honda drew 9,500 more votes than Cunneen in the open primary, though he faced four Democratic foes while Cunneen faced one Republican. Yet Cunneen, a Campbell protege, has widespread appeal among independent voters and high-tech leaders in the district.