71.   After all, both leading presidential candidates proposed spending millions on a Medicare drug benefit and Congress had been campaigning on the issue for at least two years.

72.   Alan Taylor, back from an ankle injury that sidelined him all season, and Terrelus Wright are the leading candidates for the starting tailback position.

73.   All signs indicate UCLA defensive coordinator Rocky Long is a leading candidate to be the next head coach at New Mexico, his alma mater.

74.   Britain is to relinquish its command of ISAF in the middle of April, and Turkey remains the only leading candidate to assume it.

75.   Buchanan, vastly outspent by the other leading candidates, used the kind of grass-roots campaign many had said could not succeed here anymore.

76.   Bush is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and Michigan Gov. John Engler is a close adviser to Bush.

77.   But a deal is still likely, with the Astros and Indians the leading candidates.

78.   But a high-ranking Republican official said that Cheney appeared to be the leading candidate.

79.   But aides to Ms. Messinger, the Manhattan borough president and leading candidate for the Democratic Party mayoral nomination, asserted that Giuliani had overstepped ethical bounds.

80.   But as of Friday, Conner was the leading candidate, a source said.