EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF

By Karen Tumulty/Washington

If you are fighting for a seat in Congress, it never hurts to strap yourself to a popular President. And if he doesn't happen to be a member of your own party--well, so what?

It was only two years ago that political rookie Frank Cremeans redecorated the roadsides of his sprawling Ohio district with billboards urging voters to SEND THE WHITE HOUSE A MESSAGE. These days his campaign is more likely to draw attention to the personal thank-you note Cremeans got from Bill Clinton last month for bucking Newt Gingrich and supporting a 90[cents]-an-hour minimum-wage hike. Fellow G.O.P. freshman Phil English, who maligned his 1994 opponent by labeling him a "Clinton clone," got a note too; he was so moved he announced it at a news conference back home in Erie, Pennsylvania. But neither Republican has anything on two-term Representative Peter Blute, who stood at the President's side as he signed a public-housing bill into law. "I was in the Oval Office," the co-chairman of the Massachusetts Dole-Kemp campaign says, "and Clinton handed me a pen."

If the outcome of the presidential race has a faintly inevitable air, the question of which party will control the House is wide open and quickly becoming what this year's election is all about. Republicans now concede privately what would have seemed unthinkable a few months ago: that even their control of the Senate may be at risk, with the outcome in many races hinging almost entirely on turnout.

As protection against a Clinton landslide, the most endangered G.O.P. candidates find themselves more eager to highlight their differences with Speaker Gingrich than with Clinton. With the President in his centrist incarnation, Cremeans' adviser, Barry Bennett, is not the only Republican boasting, "You can pick 10 big issues, and we're a lot closer to Clinton than our opponent is." Behind this explicit message is an implicit one: the virtue of divided government, if only as a check on the President's liberal instincts.

At Bob Dole's rallies across the country you have to look hard to find congressional candidates among the mayors, sheriffs and city clerks standing on the platform beside their standard-bearer. Those who do show up are generally so far behind in their own contest that any exposure is good exposure or so far ahead they can afford to be seen with someone 20 points down in the polls. Last week's performances went a long way toward explaining why some of Dole's colleagues are keeping a distance: the candidate with a gender gap began the week by denouncing Clinton's first legislative achievement, family and medical leave, a law so popular among women that the White House had ads on daytime TV within 48 hours. Dole went to Hartford, Connecticut, on Wednesday and chose the 22nd floor of an insurance building to hold a session he called "Listening to America." Next he let Steve Forbes hijack his campaign swing through Delaware, and glowered as Forbes answered questions addressed to the candidate for a full 33 minutes before the millionaire relinquished the microphone to the presidential candidate. Then Dole called on the White House to release Clinton's medical records, which served the dubious purpose of forcing the White House spokesman to deny that the President has a sexually transmitted disease, and to produce a doctor's summary of his health condition. But the whole health issue is probably not a winning issue for a candidate who is 73 years old. Particularly one who talks a lot these days about what he'd like to see on his tombstone. And whose schedule last week included a stop at a cemetery where relatives are buried.

If G.O.P. candidates are not going out of their way to help Dole get elected, the Dole campaign itself can't quite decide whether to return the favor. Last week Dole threw his weight behind an amendment that could doom an illegal-immigration bill many G.O.P. lawmakers are as eager as Clinton to pass. But Dole, a former G.O.P. chairman, sometimes puts party first, which helps explain why his newly minted advertising strategy is designed in part to keep his Republican colleagues afloat even if his campaign falls flat. For example, Dole has decided to sacrifice part of his own ad budget to help other G.O.P. candidates in states like California, where he's 22 points behind but where critical battles for the state assembly and Congress are being closely fought. Gingrich, party chairman Haley Barbour and Governor Pete Wilson had been nagging campaign manager Scott Reed to spend more in the state to keep up the semblance of a race and boost G.O.P. turnout. Dole had been complying, spending about $380,000 a week there over the past month, but this week he will up that amount more than 20%. Such generosity shows Dole has yet to get the message: this year it's every man for himself.

--With reporting by James Carney and Michael Duffy/Washington and Sally B. Donnelly with Dole

With reporting by JAMES CARNEY AND MICHAEL DUFFY/ WASHINGTON AND SALLY B. DONNELLY WITH DOLE