Tampa, Fla. ? Declaring that “it’s close to votin’ time,” President Bush raced through the Deep South on Saturday, pumping up the Republican rank-and-file, promoting the party’s candidates and making one last effort to secure the re-election of his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“It’s time to quit the sermons and start passing the plate,” Bush told GOP loyalists outside Atlanta, where he was stumpingfor Rep. Saxby Chambliss, the challenger to Sen. Max Cleland. “That means it’s time to turn out the vote.”

His final campaign weekend began in the mountains of east Tennessee and will have taken him to 10 states by Monday night. He arrives in Illinois Sunday morning for an appearance in Springfield with Rep. John Shimkus of Collinsville and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan.

With Democrats in control of the Senate by a single vote, Bush and Republicans are pulling out all stops to try to not just hold on to GOP seats but to seize control of the upper chamber.

For Democrat Bill McBride it meant touring South Florida with Bill Clinton, the former president beloved by the party’s base. Clinton wowed adoring crowds in Miami and startled the South Beach crowd with an impromptu stop at a Starbucks.

For Gov. Jeb Bush it meant sharing the stage at a Tampa basketball arena with his presidential brother as 8,000 screaming fans waved American flags and chanted “U-S-A.” President Bush vowed to hunt down terrorists and briefly told Floridians to reelect his brother.

“We need to change the United States Senate,” Bush told Republican activists in Blountville, Tenn., where he campaigned for former presidential candidate Lamar Alexander, who is running against eight-term Rep. Bob Clement to fill the Senate seat of retiring GOP Sen. Fred Thompson.

The key to victory Tuesday will be in voter turnout, which is expected to be low, so Bush is focused almost exclusively on revving up the party activists.

“I want to thank the grass-roots activists who have worked so hard in the past for what you’re about to do,” Bush said at four stops Saturday. “You need to go to your coffee shops and tell the people they’ve got to vote. … You need to go to your houses of worship remind people they have an obligation to vote.”

The candidate highest on Bush’s priority list was his brother Jeb, who is seeking re-election in a tight race against Democrat Bill McBride.

In a Tampa arena Saturday evening the president told Jeb Bush loyalists, “Go the polls. Take some friends to the polls, so this good man can serve you for four more years. I want to urge you to help Jeb.

In a final cross-country campaign blitz for GOP candidates, President Bush jabs the air with a thumbs-up as he lends his support to Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., right, during a stop in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Ga.. His Saturday visit was intended to help Chambliss as he faces a tight race with Se.n. Max Cleland.

“Jeb’s counting on your help and so am I.”

The president’s visit was his 12th to Florida, a battleground state where he beat Democrat Al Gore by just 537 votes two years ago, and a state he will need for his re-election bid in 2004.

Florida also is a top priority for Democrats, who view this year’s campaign between Jeb Bush and McBride as a rematch of the presidential election.

Jeb Bush elicited a chorus of boos from his supporters when he mentioned that Clinton, Al Gore, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of New York were in the state campaigning for his opponent.

“You can multiply that by 50 and I will take one George W. Bush,” Jeb Bush said.

The White House dismisses talk of a grudge match in Florida, but in Gore’s home state of Tennessee, which Bush carried two years ago, the president couldn’t help but take a shot at his 2000 opponent.

“I’ve got a fond spot in my heart for Tennessee,” Bush said, “if you know what I mean.”

Clinton, speaking to hundreds gathered at Miami-Dade Community College’s North Campus late Saturday, invoked the president’s 2000 win in Florida to motivate his listeners, telling them that a vote for McBride could help make up for the fiascos that led to lawsuits and challenges and a GOP victory two years ago.

“If you don’t vote this time because of what happened last time, it’s like letting them take your vote away twice,” Clinton said. “Once is enough. Make it count this time.”