Tim Smith, the youngest of the party's three primary candidates in Paget West.

Mr. Smith, 30, called the endorsement "significant'' but also insisted the contest would be decided by individual effort and impact.

Rival Mr. Terry West, 39, ridiculed the endorsement's value, noting that Mr.

Smith was a Leaders of Tomorrow deputy chairman until last month. "It's like Tim endorsing himself,'' he said.

Mr. Smith, Mr. West and Mr. Mark Selley, 40, are the only candidates so far for the August 17 primary to replace the Hon. David Wilkinson. Mr. Wilkinson, the House Speaker, has said he will not run in the next election.

All three men are promoting themselves as "new blood'' candidates. They have described constituents as generally jaded with the political process and, even in this United Bermuda Party stronghold, feeling somewhat alienated from Government.

Mr. Anthony Gorham, a Leaders of Tomorrow deputy chairman, said Mr. Smith had already resigned his position as a deputy chairman in the group before the endorsement decision was made.

"After he left we got together and decided he had the sort of attributes we were looking for,'' Mr. Gorham said. "He had no part in the decision.'' Leaders of Tomorrow broke with tradition earlier this year and issued its first-ever endorsement for Sen. Jerome Dill in a UBP primary in Pembroke West Central.

Some group members helped Sen. Dill on the campaign trail, Mr. Gorham said, and the same sort of thing is now likely to happen in Paget West.

Mr. Smith "has been involved in politics for a quite a while now,'' Mr.

Gorham said. "He has risen to deputy chairman of the UBP and he's been active in the party for eight years or so. And he was a founder of the Young United Bermuda youth group. He has shown leadership qualities.'' Mr. Gorham also cited Mr. Smith's involvement in founding and running Ord Road/Spring Hill Against Drugs (ORSHAD), a community anti-drug trade group in Warwick.

Youth alone was not enough to win a Leaders of Tomorrow endorsement, Mr.

Gorham said.

"We look for people who are working within the party and have contemporary thinking.

"The youngness of somebody doesn't necessarily apply to just their age.

Perhaps just as important, or even more important, is the way they express themselves and the way they look at the world.

"Obviously somebody who is 25 years old might not have experience, and experience is a necessary thing to have.'' Mr. West, a banker, CARE campaign director and Montessori school founder, said he is also stressing experience as he makes his political rounds. "Ten years older, ten years more experienced,'' he said yesterday.