Clinton Gears Campaign To Win Congressional Races Adviser Stephanopoulos In State To Help Coopersmith Against White

President Clinton’s late campaign strategy is geared as much to Democratic congressional gains as to his own margin of victory, a top aide said Sunday.

Senior presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos dismissed a question of whether Clinton would go for a personal landslide over Republican Bob Dole or try to boost the chances of Democratic congressional candidates in close races.

“I think it’s a false choice,” he said. “We’re going to do both.”

In a news conference before a fund-raising luncheon for Jeff Coopersmith, running hard to unseat freshman Republican Rep. Rick White in the 2nd District, Stephanopoulos said Democrats generally will benefit from Clinton’s 20-point lead in the polls if they work hard to get out the vote.

“We want to make sure that nobody gets complacent,” he said.

“I think that Jeff can certainly hold his own coat tails here in this district,” he said. “We think that Jeff Coopersmith is going to be joining a new majority in Washington, D.C., come Nov. 6.”

Clinton is spending the next few days in New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan and Florida, which have large numbers of electoral votes and congressional races that could go either way. The president’s schedule after Saturday remains to be determined, Stephanopoulos said.

“By contrast, Bob Dole is campaigning in Kansas, Virginia and New Hampshire. Those are not states which Republicans usually have to go back to in the late stage of the presidential campaign,” he said.

Stephanopoulos and Coopersmith accused White of using “push polls,” in which voters are asked questions under the guise of an opinion survey and then slipped negative material on a candidate.

“The Republican Party has really taken these kind of negative attacks to new heights,” Stephanopoulos said. “Rick White is guilty now of state-of-the-art negative campaigning with these push polls.”

Three 2nd District voters told The Seattle Times they received push poll-type calls two week ago. White’s campaign manager, Peter Schalestock, said the calls were made by a campaign consultant but denied they were push poll.