ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996 TAG: 9611040131
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
President Clinton battled to break Florida's GOP tradition and crush Bob Dole's comeback hopes Sunday, while the challenger asserted he had the ``better compass'' to lead America into a new century. Republicans voiced growing confidence they would keep control of Congress, and warned Clinton there would be no second-term honeymoon.
``There are big troubles ahead for this president,'' said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican, all but conceding the White House race as he vowed tough investigations of Democratic Party fund-raising.
Two days before America votes, the presidential rivals focused on states critical to the other's success. Dole spent the day in California, fighting the odds for the 54 electoral votes that anchor Clinton's re-election strategy. ``Keep your fingers crossed and keep on working,'' Dole said in a call to volunteers on the overnight shift at his headquarters.
Pressing his case that Clinton had sub par ethics, Dole told a 2 a.m. Nevada rally: ``Nobody's perfect. But I think I've got a little better compass and a little better commitment to what America ought to be about."
The president made two stops in Florida before flying up the East Coast to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine and finally New Hampshire. Florida last voted Democrat for president 20 years ago, but the race has been in a dead heat in the closing days.
``As we get closer and closer to the election, the work passes from my hands to yours,'' Clinton told a black congregation in Tampa, Fla. His simple closing message: Americans are better off than they were four years ago - and Republicans are a threat to Medicare and education. ``We need you, New Jersey,'' Clinton said as he made his way up the coast.
Reform Party candidate Ross Perot was a distant third everywhere but pulling enough votes in some states to influence the outcome. He spent the day in his campaign venue of choice - a television studio - working on spots to fill 120 minutes of network time he has purchased on elective eve.
Tuesday's ballot features contests for 34 Senate seats and 435 in the House, as well as 11 gubernatorial elections. Democratic leaders predicted they would get the 18-seat gain necessary to retake the House and put the odds of the three-seat Senate gain needed for a majority at 50-50. But party pollsters and operatives were less optimistic, and most late polling suggested Republicans would keep control.
Final weekend presidential polling showed a tightening race, but Clinton still had a decided edge. Several new national surveys showed Clinton leading Dole by 10 points.
State-by-state results are more important because of the Electoral College. New surveys in Arizona, Iowa, Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Mexico and Ohio showed Clinton leading. And Clinton and Dole were running neck-and-neck in new polls in Indiana and Virginia - two conservative states Dole had hoped to lock up over the summer.
As Clinton and Dole campaigned at a frenetic pace, the campaigns and parties were turning their attention to generating Tuesday turnout.
Republicans howled about a Democratic mailing to elderly residents in Florida that suggested Dole would force older Americans to sell their homes before they could qualify for nursing home benefits under Medicaid.
Democrats objected to a Republican National Committee radio ad that quoted Jesse Jackson as saying Clinton would be a ``whole different president'' if given a liberal Democratic Congress. The spot also recalls Clinton's suggestion that he might put Hillary Rodham Clinton in charge of welfare policy in a second term.
``One of the astonishing things has been the opposition's obsession with my wife. Well, I'm obsessed with her too, but in a different way.'' Clinton said to laughter in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Confident of victory, Clinton stuck to his low-key campaign script. Still, it was clear the final days weren't the cakewalk Clinton expected. Aides said the president voiced frustration while reviewing polling data during the trip, lamenting that he was slipping in several states and even in victory might again be denied a majority of the popular vote.
And while the White House said the Maine stop was added to help Senate and House candidates, it is also one of several reform-minded states where Clinton's numbers have slipped during the recent focus on Democratic National Committee fund-raising from foreign interests.
``One big argument for campaign finance reform,'' said White House press secretary Mike McCurry, asserting that Republicans also raised millions through campaign law loopholes.
As they made the round of Sunday news shows, Republicans predicted they would still run Congress come January. They said Democrats had crossed the line by courting corporate and banking interests in South Korea and Indonesia.
``You've got real questions of the illegal behavior of the president and his entire political party,'' said House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, echoing Senate colleague Lott in predicting Congress would put the Clinton administration under an even more intense ethical microscope.
Beyond the horse-race numbers, Clinton's job approval and personal favorability ratings have slipped a bit in recent polls, and there is other evidence the ethical questions have had an impact.
As he took advantage of early voting in Kentucky, John Fadell of Louisville said he was a Democrat who switched to Dole at the last minute because of the fund-raising accounts.
``The next four years, he's going to be swamped with all these allegations,'' Fadell said. ``It's going to be another Watergate.''
But even many Dole backers suggested the clock was ticking too fast. Jan Staples, Dole's campaign director in Maine, had this simple wish: ``Another two weeks.''
LENGTH: Long : 106 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. ``Americans are better off than they were fourby CNByears ago,'' President Clinton tells a Tampa, Fla., crowd Sunday. 2.
``I think I've got a little better compass,'' GOP candidate Bob Dole
says to an audience in Las Vegas. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT