Clinton Keeps Bid Afloat, but Polls Show Voters Wary : Campaign: Fund raising still strong, but 26% surveyed said they could not vote for someone who had affair.

WASHINGTON —  So far, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton’s strategy to keep his Democratic presidential candidacy afloat amid tabloid charges of marital infidelity appears to be working.

While conceding unspecified “wrongdoing,” Clinton has argued that his past marital difficulties, far from setting him apart, are typical of problems that millions of mainstream Americans struggle with in an era in which troubled marriages and even divorce have become painfully all too common.

And he has insisted that whatever indiscretions he may have committed are trivial compared to the economic anguish grinding at a recession-ridden nation. This contention has helped him to shift attention from himself to the press, by challenging reporters to filter out sleaze and focus their coverage on substance.

His fund raising remains strong, and a poll of New Hampshire voters released Thursday showed Clinton again moving ahead of the Democratic field in the state, where the first-in-the-nation primary will be held Feb. 18.

Nevertheless, Clinton’s own pollster, Stanley Greenberg, concedes the candidate’s position remains “precarious.” Polling data suggests that a significant number of Americans will not vote for a presidential candidate who they believe has engaged in extra-marital sex.

Capitol Hill staffers say that several Democratic officeholders, fearing that Clinton’s chances of winning the fall election have been gravely damaged, are trying to persuade House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, among others, to enter the race for the nomination.

“A lot of people are worried about where this thing is going,” said one well-placed Democratic staffer. “Some people are worried about losing their own seats” if the Democrats nominate a wounded standard-bearer. “And others who think we have a good chance to win this (presidential) election worry that they don’t see anyone out there who can do it.”

The prevailing opinion, sources said, is that barring some explosive new revelation, Clinton can probably gain the nomination if he wins in New Hampshire. He has a strong organization in the South and elsewhere, and his package of position papers has given his candidacy an image of substance.

But many feel that he has been, as one staffer put it, “mortally wounded” as a general election candidate by the allegations already made against him and his own admission of wrongdoing.

Staffers said that Gephardt, Bentsen, West Virginia Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., all previously mentioned as presidential candidates, have been approached by fellow congressmen to reconsider their decisions not to enter the race.

Rockefeller and Gore are said to have rejected the idea. But Gephardt and Bentsen left some people with the impression that they might at least consider such a move--although only if Clinton should pull out of the race.

At least one other lawmaker was similarly approached about running as a favorite son in his home state as part of an effort to keep Clinton from winning enough delegates to control the nomination. This legislator declined.

Those pushing for an alternative candidate are not making a judgment about whether they believe the allegations against Clinton, or whether his marital conduct should or shouldn’t affect his candidacy, sources said.

“It’s all about winning (in November),” said one legislative aide.

The data that bother the Capitol Hill Democrats include a CBS News poll conducted last week in which 14% said that learning that a candidate had been unfaithful to his wife would cause them to vote for someone else. And in an ABC News Poll taken Monday, 26% said they could not vote for a presidential candidate who had an extramarital affair.

A survey released Thursday by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press showed that while 52% of the public sees little connection between infidelity and a candidate’s ability to serve, 40% view adultery as something that should be considered in judging presidential candidates.

To overcome such misgivings, Clinton has tried to establish a common bond between himself and the majority of married voters by convincing them that his lifestyle is not very different from theirs.

Asked on “60 Minutes” Sunday to explain what he meant by the “problems” he said had troubled his marriage, Clinton said: “I think the American people, at least people that have been married for a long time, know what it means and know the whole range of things that it can mean.”

Clinton’s wife, Hillary, has helped to make that point and also to make the argument that their personal difficulties are irrelevant to the presidential campaign, particularly at a time of economic crisis.

“Is anything about our marriage important enough to the people of New Hampshire as whether or not they will have a chance to keep their own families together?” Hillary Clinton asked during one of the couple’s joint appearances in New Hampshire. Her answer from the clearly sympathetic appearance was a burst of applause that nearly drowned out her words.

Clinton’s advisers say he is benefiting from “a backlash against the press,” a feeling that also reflects resentment of the coverage of two previous public controversies with seamy overtones, the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and the confirmation fight of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

An independent poll in New Hampshire conducted by the American Research Group reported that Clinton led the Democratic field there with 34% as of Wednesday. Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas had 25%, Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey had 8%, followed by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin at 5%, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. at 2% and former Irvine Mayor Larry Agran at 1%.

Any new candidate would have to move fast to make up for lost time. Filing deadlines have already passed for delegate contests in states that will choose about 1,400 of the 4,287 Democratic Convention delegates. And states that will choose about 700 additional delegates have deadlines in the next three weeks, including New York on Feb. 13 and Pennsylvania on Feb. 18.

But a late-starting candidate could target Oregon, with a filing deadline of March 10, California, March 19, and New Jersey with an April 9 deadline, in addition to seeking support among the 771 elected and party officials who will go to the convention as “super delegates,” free to back whomever they want.

One saving grace for Clinton so far is that his rivals have been unable to take advantage of his predicament, in part because the controversy over Clinton’s behavior has dominated coverage of the campaign.

“Obviously Clinton has the worst of this,” says Michael McCurry, a senior adviser to Kerrey. “But the truth is, none of us can communicate” as long as the storm swirls around Clinton.

As they prepare for a nationally televised debate tonight, some of the candidates are expected to be readying attacks on Clinton’s positions on the issues and his record as governor of Arkansas.

“I think that would be an incredibly dicey strategy,” says Greenberg, who contends that any attacker would himself be hurt because of high voter disapproval of any kind of negative campaigning.

But Don Sweitzer, an adviser to Harkin, who was sharply critical of Clinton in the last debate in New Hampshire on Jan. 19, scoffed at that idea. “Clinton can’t have it both ways,” Sweitzer said. “He can’t say we should discuss the issues and then complain because we’re picking on him because we talk about his record.”

HOLLYWOOD POLITICS: Bill Clinton and Bob Kerrey are the front-runners on the local Democratic party circuit. F1