CALIFORNIA, HERE IT COMES: $4 MILLION GOP ADVERTISING BLITZ.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

Planning a huge shift of resources in the last two weeks of the campaign, Dole officials say they will spend $4 million on advertising in California, praising Bob Dole for his honesty and his tax plan while accusing President Clinton of lying and of failing to halt illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, the California Republican Party is buying a total of $1.7 million in advertising time, according to a Democratic analysis, for a commercial to support a ballot initiative that would eliminate state affirmative action programs.

The commercial points out that Clinton opposes the initiative, Proposition 209, but it does not mention Dole. It features a quotation from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., shown giving his ``I Have a Dream'' speech, but King scholars and the King estate say the commercial misrepresents his views.

The California Republican Party said Wednesday that it was considering dropping King from the commercial, which is to begin broadcasting as early as this weekend.

Dole campaign officials said the commercial would help their cause by criticizing Clinton and by encouraging Republican voters to turn out.

``This is, over the final two weeks of the campaign, an unprecedented coordinated effort between the Dole-Kemp campaign and the California Republican Party to maximize the vote for Bob Dole and Republican candidates,'' said John Buckley, Dole's communications director.

``In addition, there is a considerable effort by the Republican Party to maximize the voter turnout, to help defeat Bill Clinton.''

But Clinton campaign officials said that they asked voters about the ballot proposition in a poll Tuesday night, and found that it did not affect their opinion of the candidates. ``People don't associate it with Dole,'' one Clinton official said.

He argued that the commercial showed that the California state party was more interested in helping Republican congressional candidates than Dole. ``They want to lower Clinton's favorable, so he has no coattails,'' he said.

Clinton campaign officials said they would spend more than $2 million in California in the next two weeks, but would not match the spending of the Dole campaign dollar for dollar.

Dole plans to make a campaign bus trip through California this weekend, and to campaign there again late next week. The Dole campaign has meanwhile pulled all its advertising from New Hampshire, and from New York and Pennsylvania, two media markets that cover New Jersey. The huge shift of money and time to California comes as The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday morning that its polling showed Clinton with a 20-point lead there.

Buckley said Dole would speak out against affirmative action while in California. But a Republican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dole would not advertise on that issue, because doing so would interfere with his other messages.

``We're committed to truth and taxes on the positive,'' the official said. ``And we're committed, in California, to truth and immigration on the negative.''

Dole also began broadcasting commercials in Virginia this week, and the Clinton campaign is considering responding there.

The Dole campaign is broadcasting two commercials in California. One features Elizabeth Dole praising her husband's integrity and promising that he would cut taxes by 15 percent.

The other one attacks Clinton as a liar who promised a tax cut but raised taxes, and promised tough ethics rules but delivered ``more investigations, more prosecutions, and more convictions.''

Neither commercial shows an image of Dole, except in a tiny box in one corner, a fact that delights Democrats. ``He is so radioactive he's not in his own TV,'' said Rahm Emanuel, a White House adviser.

The Dole campaign also released another commercial Wednesday, which it said it would broadcast in California. The advertisement refers to a girl named Nicole who was quoted in a New York Times article.

The narrator says: ``She told The New York Times: `Look at Bill Clinton. He smoked marijuana and became president.' '' The narrator concludes: ``Before you vote, remember: Our children have to live with the president we give them.''

Dole also does not appear in that ad, except in a small box.

California state Republican Party Chairman John Herrington said that the party was fully committed to electing Dole, but that because of campaign finance laws, it could not put him in its commercial about affirmative action.