CLINTON, DOLE WOO BIG MONEY : CRIES FOR REFORMS PROMPT LITTLE ACTION.

Byline: Jodi Enda and Brigid Schulte Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

President Clinton and Bob Dole preached to their party faithful on Sunday, but while Dole called for campaign finance reform, Clinton spent his time raising millions.

Despite Dole's cries for change, neither he nor Clinton - who issued similar pleas when he was a challenger four years ago - has led the battle to reduce the influence of big-money donors. And both have courted them.

Dole used recent reports of foreign-related contributions to the Democratic Party to launch his latest attack on Clinton.

``If you're not eligible to vote in America, you shouldn't be permitted to contribute to politicians in America,'' Dole told a few hundred people who braved torrential rains to hear him speak in the heart of Republican territory in Nashua, N.H.

``We're going to clean up the system,'' Dole said. ``The bottom line is, it'll be your election and not the election of some foreign interest or some special interest that you have no control over.''

The crowd roared its approval. Some chanted ``Read my Lippos

'' a reference both to George Bush's 1988 ``no new taxes'' pledge and to the Lippo Group, an Indonesian conglomerate whose associates have contributed just under $1 million to Democratic campaigns in the past few years.

For the first time since he began hitting Clinton on what Dole aides call ``Indo-gate,'' Dole offered his own plan to reform the campaign finance system. He proposed permitting only U.S. citizens to contribute to campaigns, limiting corporate and union contributions and curtailing the influence of political action committees. Similar plans to restrict giving have failed repeatedly, including under Dole's stewardship as Senate majority leader.

Current law permits foreigners living legally in the United States to contribute to candidates as long as the money is not transferred from overseas. The Democratic National Committee recently returned $250,000 from a South Korean company; the Republicans, too, have also had to return funds from foreigners.

Clinton has not addressed the controversy himself. His campaign spokesman, Joe Lockhart, shot back at Dole on Sunday without directly addressing his allegations.

Saying that campaign-finance reform is ``long overdue,'' Lockhart said, ``But it's a little late - and disingenuous - for Bob Dole to promote campaign-finance reform.

``Bob Dole has made a career opposing meaningful campaign-finance reform,'' Lockhart said in a prepared response. ``It's too bad that Senator Bob Dole's record doesn't match candidate Dole's rhetoric.''

Neither Dole nor Clinton - who as a candidate in 1992 called for a major overhaul of campaign laws that make candidates rely heavily on big givers - has placed such reform near the top of his agenda. And over the years, both Democrats and Republicans have blocked efforts to change a system that benefits whichever party is in power.

Clinton attended five fund-raisers Sunday in New Jersey and New York, part of a three-pronged effort to raise $10 million to $15 million, primarily for Democrats running for Congress. One event, at the former Roosevelt family estate in Tarrytown, N.Y., brought in $25,000 a person.

Clinton started the day at a church in Newark, N.J., where he urged parishioners to vote: ``It is your responsibility,'' he chanted. ``It is your responsibility. It is your responsibility.''

In Teaneck, N.J., Clinton attended a $1,000-a-person fund-raiser for Rep. Robert Torricelli, who is battling Republican Rep. Dick Zimmer in one of the closest, nastiest and costliest Senate races in the nation.

Despite the tenor of the race to replace retiring Sen. Bill Bradley, Clinton used the fund-raiser as a change to decry negative campaigning.

But Clinton was unable to ignore disparaging comments as a heckler standing a few feet away interrupted the start of his speech by screaming for several minutes that he had mishandled welfare, Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein. She was identified as Gloria La Riva, vice-presidential candidate for the Workers World Party, and her verbal jabs echoed through the small hotel ballroom.

The usually calm Clinton struggled first to cajole her and then to speak over her - to no avail - before he finally used La Riva as a prop.

``Wait, wait,'' Clinton said, as the crowd of several hundred tried to quiet her. ``Hey, wait, this might be interesting. She talked about the war on the poor. Fact - facts are inconvenient. We had the biggest drop in child poverty last year in 20 years. Second fact: We had the biggest drop in poverty in households headed by women in 30 years. We had the biggest decrease in inequality among working people in 27 years.

``What else should we talk about? I like this. This is good.''

Ultimately, La Riva was escorted out by local police.

Throughout the day, Clinton warned supporters that, despite his lead in the polls, they should not be complacent.