"Freddy is in bad need of a crossover vote," he said.

And neither of them had to worry about crossover votes from Republicans.

As a result, Leach traditionally won large numbers of crossover votes from Democrats and was expected to do so again.

For the first time since New Hampshire, they will now be scrambling with each other for crossover votes from all parties.

No single issue is considered strong enough to deliver a knockout punch, but any of them could sway significant numbers of crossover votes.

Nagin was first elected in March 2002 and received significant crossover vote from just about every segment of the population.

He is getting crossover votes now, but he needs a lot more.

The power to attract crossover votes from Democrats and independents, he said, is important and should not be ignored.

Even so, he did not greatly exceed the 31 percent threshold, especially not considering his Democratic crossover votes.

Ms. Johnson hopes for a crossover vote of blacks and women who usually favor Democrats.