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CENTURY, Fla. -Hard by the Alabama border, where Lawton Chiles started a legendary 1,000-mile walk in his first bid for the U.S. Senate, an admirer has arrived 30 years later with a maverick campaign of his own.

Willie Logan, term-limited state representative from Opa-Locka and long-shot candidate for the U.S. Senate, is straddling a motorcycle for a 60-day ride through the state to Key West.

"I'm running for the U.S. Senate because I believe ordinary people can do extraordinary things," says Logan, as the leather-vested bikers of a 16-member motorcade –most of them riding Harley Davidsons– that escorted him to the town park mingle with a few dozen of Century's curious ones at an evening feed of fried mullet and hush-puppies.

Logan is running for the Senate seat that the late "Walkin' Lawton" once held. The contest, which officially kicks off this week as candidates formally file to run, is drawing one big-name Democrat and likely two Republicans: Florida Treasurer Bill Nelson, Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher and U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum.

Logan, an 18-year veteran of the Florida House, is retiring from that post this year. The longtime Democrat and one-time mayor of Opa-locka has shed his party membership this week to run without affiliation. He has tapped the same resourceful television adman who helped the anti-establishment former pro-wrestler Jesse Ventura ride a Reform party ticket to the governorship of Minnesota.

By the measure of opinion polling, Logan poses a mere single-digit threat in a contest dominated by Nelson. The Tallahassee-based state treasurer and insurance commissioner, a former congressman from Melbourne who once flew as an observer aboard the space shuttle, is a formidable fund-raiser.

Nelson readily invokes his supporters, including the widow of Chiles, when asked if Logan's campaign might siphon support from black voters who traditionally vote overwhelmingly Democratic.

"It was Rhea Chiles who came to our announcement and said it was me who she would like to take the seat of Lawton Chiles," said Nelson, standing first in line Monday at the state Capitol when formal qualifying began.

Nelson is intent on claiming the reformer's mantle that a Ventura-modeled rival will attempt to carry to the Senate race: "The priories of the average citizen will be ignored by the special interests unless somebody stands up for them," he said after qualifying. "I want to be that strong voice."

OPEN SEAT

The Republicans, guarding a 55-45 margin in the U.S. Senate, are intent on keeping the seat that will be left by retiring Sen. Connie Mack – this year's only open Senate seat now held by a Republican.

But not until September's state primary elections will the GOP select a candidate, promising an intense summer campaign.

The sole official Republican at this juncture is McCollum, a Navy-trained attorney from Altamonte Springs and 20-year member of Congress best known lately for his role as one of the House prosecutors in the impeachment of President Clinton.

But by Friday's deadline for qualifying, aides say the Republican race will include Gallagher, a former state legislator from Miami with five statewide races to his name. He was elected commissioner of education in 1998, served twice as treasurer and twice ran unsuccessfully for governor.

This will be a costly campaign, with the national parties likely to add their own resources as they battle for control of Congress.

MOST MONEY

McCollum has snared the most money, $3.4 million, for a campaign quietly begun last year. He has drawn on the political action committees that favor congressmen and has made a direct appeal to Cuban-American voters with a fundraising letter invoking the plight of Elian Gonzalez.

Gallagher, by comparison, has raised just over $1 million, most of it still unspent. He confidently suggests that he won't need as much money, thanks to popularity honed in campaigns waged since his first bid for governor in 1986.

Nelson has reported raising $3.1 million, much of it still banked, and apparently will enjoy the luxury of having no serious challenger in a Democratic primary.

Logan, who already has spent most of the $310,000 he has reported raising, spends as much time these days on a cellular phone seeking donations from business leaders as he does aboard the black 1,100-cc Yamaha Classic that will carry him to Key West by July Fourth. The motorcycle rally in the Southernmost City is timed for the expected start of a state law allowing bikers to ride helmet-free.

"We hope that eventually when people see motorcycles, they'll think of the campaign," Logan says.

GALLAGHER'S THREAT

Polling suggests that it is Gallagher who could pose the most competition for Nelson in November. A recent Florida Voter survey shows Gallagher favored among 38 percent of likely voters, Nelson 36 percent.

Fort Lauderdale-based pollster Jim Kane found Nelson holding an 8-point advantage in a matchup with McCollum – Nelson 40, McCollum 32.

But the same polling shows that McCollum has made steady gains against Gallagher among Republican voters, reaching a virtual tie in April.

"We'll come out of it fine," McCollum says. "We have more resources in the bank and we have a better basis of support."

However, a sizable share of voters awaits more information. More than one-fifth of all likely voters surveyed by Kane said they are undecided.

It is this shaky ground that Minnesota adman Bill Hillsman hopes to rock with an unorthodox Logan campaign predicated on the simple fact that no one needs a majority vote to win a three-way contest – 35 percent will do.

Logan – attracting just 5 percent support in the latest Florida Voter survey – counts on an alliance of independent voters and disaffected nonvoters unhappy with what the major parties have to offer.

Voters such as Annie C. Savage, an elderly black woman who watched Chiles start his first Senate campaign on foot in 1970 and never dreamed she would see a black man embark on a similar campaign in Century.

And voters such as E. J. "Driver" Schirtzinger, a bearded, pony-tailed, pipe-smoking biker assembling brethren from the Gulf Coast Road Rattlers after the first 50-mile leg of the Logan campaign.

Huddled in a Pensacola sandlot at dusk, the bikers who accompanied Logan here solemnly folded the American flag they flew at the front of Logan's motorcade and handed it to the would-be senator with a message: "Take that to Washington."