CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK

STATES OF THE CAMPAIGN

Republican State of Anxiety: ARIZONA 1992 VOTE: Bush: 38% Clinton: 37% Perot: 24%

The Dole campaign very much wants to avoid the embarrassment of losing this Republican bastion. Clinton almost snatched the state four years ago, and polls indicate he could grab it this time. Last week Dole brought his anticrime message to Barry Goldwater's home state, worth eight electoral votes. Dole also made sure to pay a courtesy call on the conservative patriarch (who has already endorsed him), just as President Clinton did the week before. G.O.P. Senator John McCain flatly told the Omaha World Herald that Clinton would not carry Arizona: "Bob Dole just needs to stick to his message." And perhaps visit again.

Democratic Sacrificial State: UTAH 1992 VOTE: Bush: 43% Perot: 27% Clinton: 25%

Infuriating the state's political leadership, including powerful G.O.P. Senator Orrin Hatch, President Clinton announced the creation of the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The decision is designed to protect some of the country's most striking landscape from development by powerful coal-mining interests in the region. The move, Clinton strategists believe, may win the environmentalist electorate in other states more crucial than Utah, which has only five electoral votes. Not unintentionally, the President made his announcement atop the Grand Canyon--out of Utah and in next-door Arizona.

THE PRESIDENTIAL "PAW POLL"

Bob Dole's Schnauzer is running slightly ahead of Bill Clinton's tabby in a decidedly unscientific Internet election

Leader: 51.5% Socks: 48.5%

Source: www.cpiphoto.com

STUMP WIT ITEMS IN PRESIDENT CLINTON'S MEDICAL FILE:

#5. Soreness in lower back from years of flip-flopping.

Source: Top 10 List The Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, 9/17/96