Manchester – Duncan Hunter would extend the fences between the United States and Mexico; Mike Gravel would blow them up. Still, they found common ground yesterday during a candidates' breakfast hosted by the Brotherhood at Temple Adath Yeshurun.

Hunter, a Republican congressman from California, and Gravel, a former Democratic senator from Alaska, may be opposites politically, but they were on the same side of the fence when it came to Saturday night's televised debates. That is, both were on the outside looking in, excluded from the stage. Hunter was also not invited to participate in last night's nationally televised Republican Forum sponsored by Fox News.

"The fact is that I have now won delegates in Wyoming, so I've got points on the scoreboard," Hunter said. "You've got guys with zero delegates who are going to be on the stage and a guy who actually won a couple of delegates is going to be excluded. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but you know what I do? I say that's behind us, you've got to look forward, press on."

That's why he was one of three candidates to show up at yesterday's breakfast forum. With limited access to a national audience, the relatively small event was a welcome opportunity for Hunter and Gravel to make their final pitches before tomorrow's primary.

"These are very important," Hunter said. "To be able to talk to people in a close setting and answer questions is really important. Retail politics is the heart of the American system."

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was the only other candidate to make an appearance at the event, which drew a crowd of more than 200, including 80 students from Hofstra University who spent the weekend busing to candidate functions around the state.

Representatives for Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama spoke for their candidates. Dennis Kucinich was a no-show. Richardson, the only speaker to receive a standing ovation, took a shot at his rival Democrats who were not on hand.

"I show respect by showing up myself, and I'll continue to do that," Richardson said. "This was an opportunity to get my views across a very influential audience."

Each speaker had about 15 minutes to speak and each took a question or two from the audience.

Richardson, the clear crowd favorite, confidently claimed to have won Saturday night's debate and well-respected diplomat Tony Lake spoke eloquently as Obama's representative. And while all the candidates and their surrogates pledged their support for a strong relationship with Israel, Gravel said Iran was no threat to Israel or the U.S., and part of bringing peace to the Middle East would be to "raise the Palestine economic community to the same level of Israel."

While Gravel appears realistic about his slim chances of becoming President, he advised the people not to believe all the promises of the more prominent candidates. Minutes after Richardson told the crowd he would get all the troops out of Iraq, Gravel said "they're not getting the troops out."

"I'm in the race because I want to communicate with the people that the answers are not with their leaders, the answers are with them," Gravel said. "All of these candidates are running the word `change.' It's only a word to them."