CHICAGO — For four prime-time evenings, Democrats celebrated President Clinton's march toward reelection this week with televised glitz and glitter. But off-camera, party leaders spent much of their time worrying about a more uncertain contest: the Democrats' struggle to retake control of the Senate and House.
Despite Clinton's strength in most of the country, most experts say the Democrats' chances of retaking Congress--and unseating their favorite target, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.)--are still less than even. And that has touched off a debate among Democrats about how much the president should do to help his party on Capitol Hill.
In closed-door meetings, party leaders and candidates have appealed to Clinton to focus his campaign on states where key House races are at stake. But Clinton strategists have said so far that the president must concentrate on winning his own seat back and leave House candidates mostly to their own devices.
"We'd like to get the president into Washington state and Massachusetts, but there's no way," a congressional campaign strategist said, citing two states where Clinton has comfortable leads but several House seats are at risk.
Likewise, delegates from Georgia and North Carolina asked in caucus meetings this week for stronger commitments of the president's time and money to their states, where he is running behind Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole--but got few promises.
Clinton aides said the president is likely to visit all those states at least once this fall, but they acknowledged that their campaign is going to concentrate its time--and its spending on television advertising--in the presidential battleground of the Midwest.
Only if those key states are sewn up will Clinton consider focusing on the congressional races, party officials said. "They can make that decision in late September, if they're 15 points up and it's all over," one Democratic National Committee official said.
"We've got to run campaigns that are run for our needs and he's got to run a campaign for his needs, and we understand that," said House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who would be in line to replace Gingrich as speaker if the Democrats win the House. "Obviously, we'd be glad to have whatever help he can give."
The stakes for Clinton are high, Gephardt noted. "He knows that if he's got Newt Gingrich and [Senate Majority Leader] Trent Lott, he's going to spend the next four years playing defense," he said.
